
vr.lTAMIiK'A CO., ClIICACO. 



























































A practical handbook. Containing' full instructions for 
amateur Photographers. Simply written, 
easily understood. 


COMPILE' BY 

T. STITH^ALDWIN. 

U 













17703 


Library of Congfr««8 

Two Copies Received 

JUL 11 1900 

Copyright tntry 

SECOND COPY. 

OfcHverad t« 

ORDLU DIVISION, 

JUL 12 1900 


Copyright 1900, 
Alhambra Book Co. 


70993 








SO-J-XI SI37 


PREFACE. 


The development of the hand camera from the 
original crude box dignified by the name of camera 
into the present perfect instrument, has placed pho¬ 
tography, that fascinating, delightful pursuit, within 
the easy reach of every one. The camera is now 
recognized as a factor in the fields of pleasure, profit 
and instruction and is used by every class of citizen; 
by the tourist and other pleasure seeker as an adjunct 
to further the enjoyment of a vacation and to provide 
lasting souvenirs of a pleasant experience; by the 
professional man as a most' valued assistant in sci¬ 
entific research; by the itinerant photographer as a 
means of livelihood, as he travels from place to place. 

Any man, woman or child of ordinary intelligence, 
without previous experience, by simply following 
' printed instructions, can soon acquire the knowledge 
necessary to properly opeYate the camera, develop 
the plate (or film), and print and finish the picture. 

The spread of photography as a popular pastime, 
great as it has been, is hardly a matter for wonder 
when we consider that there are few, if any, hobbies 
w'hich form so constant a source of both pleasure and 
instruction, at so small an expense. For every ama¬ 
teur who dabbled in photography in the old “wet- 
plate” days, there are now thousands who, thanks to 
“dry-platls,” and improved and cheapened apparatus, 
are enabled to pursue this fascinating art-science, and 
to their ranks recruits are flocking every day. It is 
more particularly in the interests of these recruits 
that this little volume is written, and the writer has 
endeavored in the following pages to impart such 
information and instruction as will enable the novice 
to avoid the snares and pitfalls which beset the path 
qf the beginner, and to make an enoouraging start on 
the high road to success. The first of the following 
chapters deals vdth various pieces of appa’’atus neces¬ 
sary to form a useful ©utfit. and then in the succeed¬ 
ing pages the several stens in the making of a photo¬ 
graph are taken up one by one. and each operation is 
treated fully under its proper heading. 



PREFACE. 


The writer has endeavored to give especially clear 
instructions on those points where the beginner is 
most hkeiy to err, and if these are attended to with 
care the would-be photographer is not likely to go 
very far astray. No amount of reading will enable 
the amateur to succeed, unless it be followed up by 
careful practical work. The majority of amateur 
photographers gain their experience from their fail¬ 
ures, but failures are not encouraging, and it is 
hoped that the readers of this little book wall be en¬ 
abled to reduce their number to a minimum and to 
gain that more pleasing kind of experience which re¬ 
sults from success. 

In conclusion, the writer begs to impress upon the 
amateur’s mind the imperative necessity for constant, 
earnest, w'atchful attention to all details. He has 
done all in his powder to make photography simple 
and popular; the result must remain wdth the ama¬ 
teur. T, S. BALDWIN. 




CONTENTS. 




Preface 


Chapter I. Apparatus Required. 

The Size of the Outfit, the Points of a Good Camera, 
the Lens, the Plate Holder, the Tripod Stand, Shut¬ 
ters, Hand Cameras, the Ruby Lamp, Developing- 
Dishes, Toning-Dishes, Scales, Graduated Glass- 
Measures, Printing Frame, the Focusing Cloth, 
Carrying Case. 

Chapter II. The Choice of Plates or Films. 

Landscapes, Portraiture, Interiors Architectural 
Subjects, Copying, Snap-Shots and Instantaneous 

Photography. 

Chapter III. Development and Completion 
OF THE Negative. 

Equipment and Arrangement of the Dark-Room, the 
Choice of a Developer. How to Mix the Developer, 






CONTENTS— {continued.) 


How to Develop a Negative, How to Recognize 
and Correct Under and Over Exposure, How to 
Intensify a Negative, How to Reduce a Negative, 

Fog and its Causes, Pinholes, Halation, Varnishing 

the Negative, Storing Negatives. 44-58 

Chapter IV* Making and Mounting Prints. 

How to Make P. O. P. Prints; Toning, Fixing, and 
Washing P. O. P., Mounting P. O. P., Printing on 
“Solio” Paper, Bromide Printing, Platinum Print¬ 
ing, Printing in Clouds, Vignetting, Framing. 59-?4 

Chapter V. How to Make Enlargements. 

Enlarging by Daylight, Enlarging by Artificial 
Light, How to Make an Enlarged Negative, Gen¬ 
eral Remarks on Photographic Enlarging. 

Chapter VI. Lantern-Slide and Transparency 
Making. 

The Uses of Lantern-Slides and Transparencies on 
Glass, Lantern-Slide Making by Contact, Lantern- 
Slide Making by Reduction, Developing Lantern 
Slides, Covering, and Binding and Finishing Slides, 

How to Use Photographic Transparencies for 
Home Decoratiou. 84-94 


-83 






CONTENTS— {continued.) 


Chapter VII. Miscellaneous Branches of 
Photography. 

Use of Orthochromatic Plates, Stereoscopic Photog¬ 
raphy, Flash-Light Photography, Photographic 
Tricks and Amusements, X-Rays and their Uses... 95-106 

Chapter VIII. Useful Formula and 
Recipes. 

Amidol Developer; Belitzki’s Reducing Formula; 

Black for Coating Inside of Cameras; Blue Print 
Paper to Use; Brass, to Blacken; Combined Toning 
and Fixing Bath. Cracked Negatives, to Print 
from; Dirty Bottles, to Clean; Eikonogen De¬ 
veloper. Eikonogen and Hydroquinone Combined 
Developer; Enlarging a Negative, simple way of; 

Ferrous Oxalaj Developer; Focusing Screen, a 
Substitute for; Glass to Clean; Hydroquinone or 
Quinol Developer; Metol Developer; Metol and 
Hydroquinone Developer; Mountant for Prints; 

Plates, to Dry Quickly; Ruby-Glass, a Substitute 
for; Retouching Medium; Spoilt Negatives, to 
remove film from; Stoppers, to remove when 
Tight; Ten jier cent. Solutions; Weights and Meas¬ 
ures. General Instructions for Operating Fold¬ 
ing Hand Cameras; the Swing Back; the Horizon¬ 
tal Swing the Principal Object; For Vertical Pic¬ 
tures. 107-117 




NDE 


Amidol developer, 107 
“ use of, 46 

Apparatus Required, list of, 5 
Architectural Subjects, 39 

“ “ exposure 

for, 41 

Avoirdupois weight, 114 

t 

'Backingfor Plates, 56 
I Belitzki’s Reducing formula, 

' 107 

Black, for inside of Cameras, 
107 

Blue Prints, to make, 107 
“ “ to tone, 107 

Brass, to blacken, 108 
Bromide paper, pi-ints on, 65 
“ “ developer for, 67 

“ “ cleai’iog bath 

for, 68 

Bromide paper, exposure for, 

67 

Bromide paper, how to de¬ 
velop, 68 

Bromide paper, varieties of, 

68 

Cameras, standard sizes of, 

6 to 16 

Carrying case. 30 
Clouds, to print in, 72 
Combined toning and fixing 
bath, 108 

Cracked negatives, to print I 
from, 109 

Daylight enlarging, 82 
Developer for Lantern Slides, 
90 

Developer, choice of 46 
“ how to mix, 47 

Developing Trays. 27 I 

“ the negative. 44 
Diaphragms, or stops. 23 
Dirty bottles, to clean, 109 
Dry Plates, 31 


Eikonogen developer, 109 
“ use of, 47 
“ and Hydroquinone, 47 
“ Developer, 110 
Enlarging and reducing Cam¬ 
era, 76 

Enlarging bv Artificial Light, 
79 

Enlarging of, 82-110 

by daylight, 75 
“ with an ordinary 
camera, 76 

Enlarged negatives, how to, 
make, 75-80 

Ferrous-Oxalate, use of. 47 
“ “ developer. 110 

Fixing bath for prints, 108 
Fixing, chemistry of, 62 
Flash-light photograph, to 
take, loo 

Focusing Screen, substitute 
for, 110 

Foctising cloth, to make, 30 
Framing prints, 73 

Glass, to clean, 111 
Glyciu, u.se of, 47 
Graduated Glass Measures, 
29 

Halation, nature of, 56 
“ remedy for, 56 
Hand Cameras, use of, 6 to 16 
“ difi'erent tvpes, 

6 to 11 

Hand Cameras, Long Focus, 
6-7 

Hand Cameras, Magazine, 8 
“ “ Folding. 9 

“ “ “Pocket-Kodak,” 

10 

Hand Cameras, “Bulls-eye,” 
12 

Hand Cameras, View-finders, 
13-16 





lym'EK—{continued.) 


Hand Camera, shatters for, 23 
Hydroqninone, use of, 111 
Hypo, or fixing hath, 51 

Instantaneous Photography, 
41 

Intensifying a negative, 53 

Interiors, 37 

Iris Diaphragm, 18 

Lamp Shade for showing 
transparencies, 93 
Landscapes, exposure for, 33 
Lantern slides, desirable 
qualities of, 85 
Lantern slides, developer for, 
90 

Lantern slide making, 
methods of, 84 
Lantern slide by contact, 85 
“ “ reduction day¬ 

light, 86 

Lantern slide artificial light, 
89 

Lantern slide covering, 91 
“ ' “ binding, 91 

“ “ masks, 90 

Lenses, various types of, 16-20 
“ single, 16 

“ portrait, 16 
“ - rapid rectilinear, 16 

“ wide angle, 16 
Liquid Measure, 114 

Metol and Hydroquinone De¬ 
veloper, 111 
Metol developer. 111 
Metol, use of, 47 
Mountant for prints, 112 
Mounting, 65 

Orthochromatic Plates, 95 

Photographing colored ob¬ 
jects, 95 

Pinholes, cause of, 55 
“ to remove, 55 
Plate Holders, 20 
Plates, choice of, 31 


Plates, speeds of, 33 

“ to dry quickly, 112 
Platinum Printing, 6H 
Portraits, exposure for, 37 
Portraiture, 35 
Printing Frames, 29 
“ in clouds, 72 
Prints to make, 59 
to wash, 64 

P.vro and Soda Developer, 47 
Pyrogallol, use of, 47 

Quinol Developer, 111 

Reducing a negative, 54 
“ a remedy for. 54 
Retouching medium, 113 
Roentgen rays. 104 
Ruby Lamps, 25 
Ruby-glass, substitute for,, 
112 

Scales, 29 
Shutters, 23-24 
Snap-shots, to take, 41 
Stereoscopic Photograph.v, 97 
Stoppers, to remove when 
tight, 113 

Storing negatives, 57 
Swing-back, 116 

Ten per cent, solutions, 114 
Thornton-Pickhard Shmter, 
23 

Toning Bath, 108 
“ Tray, 28 

Transparencies for decora¬ 
tions, 93 
Tripod-stand, 22 

Varnishing Negatives, 56 
View'-Pinders, 13 
Vignetting, 72 

Washing Negatives, 51 
Weights and Measures, 114 

X-ray Photography, 104 
‘‘ Photograph, to take, 10a 



CHAPTER 1. 


THE APPARATUS REQUIRED. 

Before the amateur commences the work of taking 
photographs he must provide himself with the neces¬ 
sary apparatus. Cameras adapted for the amateur’s 
use are divided into two classes, known respectively 
as Hand Cameras and Viewing Cameras, and these 
classes are further subdivided into many varieties. 
Of necessity the choice of the amateur must fall upon 
one or the other of the two classes, and in a large 
measure his choice must be controlled by the use to 
which the instrument is to be put. 

Should the choice of the amateur fall upon the 
Hand Camera, the list of apparatus required would be 
as follows; only those items which are absolutely 
necessary being mentioned: 

Camera, complete with Plate 'Holder, Lens and 
Shutter, Developing Trays, Toning Trays, Graduated 
Measuring Glass, Printing Frame, Ruby Lamp. 

If his preference should be the Viewing Camera, 
the above list must be augmented by the addition of 
a Tripod and Focussing cloth. 

Chemicals for making the developing and toning 
solutions and paper and dry plates will also be re¬ 
quired, but particulars of these will be included in the 
chapters devoted to those subjects later on. For the 
present, my remarks will be confined to the appa¬ 
ratus. The articles mentioned in the above list may 
be purchased separately or they may be all bought 
together in the form of a complete equipment. In 
addition to the above list, there are many other pieces 
of apparatus made, such as plate and print washing 
appliances, drying racks, plate lifters, and the like, 
but convenient as these may be, they are not abso¬ 
lutely essential, and may be left over for purchase 
when the beginner has achieved some progress and 
feels justified in making the additional outlay. The 
cost of photographic apparatus varies considerably, 
according to quality, but as you have to pay just as 
much for your plates and papers, whether you use a 
good or poor camera it is economy in the long run te 
buy the best apparatus your pocket can afford. 


5 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


HAND CAMERAS. 

As indicated by its name, a “hand” camera is one 



Long Focus Folding Hand Camera. (Class 2.) 

that is intended primarily to be used when held by 
the hands, and, therefore except on rare occasions, 
such an instrument does not require a tripod as in 
the case of the field cameras previously referred to. 
As, however, it is practically impossible to hold a 
camera in the hand with sufficient steadiness to give 
an exposure of more than about the tenth-part of a 
second, all hand cameras are provided with a shutter 
of more or less intricate character so as to enable 
quick exposure to be given. 

The most popular size for a hand camera is 4x.5, 
though some users are not satisfied with so small a 
picture and go in for a ox7 instrument or even 61/4x8^2 
or 8x10. As a rule, a 4x5 or 5x7 camera will be found 
quite large enough for all ordinary snap-shot work. 
It is not many years ago that a hand camera w'as re¬ 
garded as a toy or plaything rather than as an in¬ 
strument for serious picture-taking, but this opinion 
has now practically died out, owing to the develop¬ 
ment of this most useful instrument from the origi¬ 
nal crude box to the present perfect apparatus. 

For some classes of work a hand camera is even 
better than its b^’other on the tripod, as, for Instance, 
in depicting street scenes. In this case, a tripod 






















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


7 


camera, erected in a busy thoroughfare, would not 
only be a serious obstruction to the traffic, but would 
attract far more attention to the operator than the 
latter would care for. With a hand camera the ama¬ 
teur can stroll about when and where he will and 
take a shot here and a shot there, without attracting 
undue notice or inconveniencing anybody. For cy¬ 
clists, too, a hand camera is extremely convenient, 
as it is compact, is easily carried, and can be used 
at a moment’s notice during a ride. 

Hand cameras m.ay be divided into four classes, as 
follows: 

Class 1. Those in which a ntimber of plates or cut 
films are stored in a chamber or magazine, the plates 
being changed after each exposure by means of me¬ 
chanism. These are known as Magazine Cameras. 

Class 2. Those w’hich are so constructed that when 
not in use are self contained in a neat leather covered 
box, but when desired, by pressing a concealed button 
one side of the box is caused to be lowered, forming a. 
bed upon which the camera front containing the lens 
and shutter is drawn out, rendering the instrument 
adaptable for instant use. This style is known as the 
Folding Hand Camera. They are provided with ground 
glass screen, tripod sockets, and focussing scale and 
can be used either as a Hand Camera or upon a tri¬ 
pod as a regular Viewing Camera. In them can be 
used either dry-plates, sheet films or films in rolls, 
the various holders required being interchangeable. 
Additionally, some forms of Folding Cameras are made 
to contain the magazine of the regular mechanical 
plate changing apparatus. These are called Folding 
Magazine Cameras. The Folding is the popular style 
camera of the day and its use is rapidly superseding 
that of all other styles. 

Class 3. Those known as Fixed Focus or Box style, 
in which the plates are contained in plate holders, as 
with a tripod camera. 

Class 4. Those in which flexible films in rolls are 
used instead of glass plates, the film being wound on 
spools or rollers. The action of winding up the ex¬ 
posed portion of the film unwinds a fresh portion 
ready for the next exposure. 

In the first of the above classes the plates are usu¬ 
ally placed in metal carriers, and as a rule each 
camera holds twelve plates. Many of the less ex¬ 
pensive forms of hand cameras are made on this 
principle, and in purchasing such an instrument it is 




s 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


necessary to see that the changing mechanism works 



Magazine Camera. Takes 12 plates or films in carriers 
Mechanical Plate changing. 

without a hitch. This class of cameras possesses the 
advantage of enabling the user to make several ex¬ 
posures in quick succession, and in many cases this 
power is a decided convenience. The cameras in class 
3 are usually p'rovided with space for three double 
plate holders, taking six plates. In some instruments 
there is space for carrying all three holders in the 
body of the camera while in others there is only room 
for one holder, the other two being carried in the 
pocket. 

A camera of the class of style 2, with plate holders, 
is specially suitable when a varied range of work is to 
be done, as plates of different speeds can be carried 
in the holders and a fast or slow plate can thus be 
selected according to the needs of the subject to be 
taken. A plentiful supply of plates is not always a 
blessing to the hand camera worker, for he is then 
often tempted to spend a plate on a subject of little 
or no interest, whereas, if only a smaller supply of 
plates was available greater'care In the selection of 
the vjew would be expended. 

The cameras in class 4 appeal perhaps most strong- 


























GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


9 




Folding- Hand Camera, Box Stjde. (Class 2.) 
ly to the tourist and holiday-maker as they enable 
material for a large number of exposures to be car¬ 
ried with very little weight. There are some very 


Folding Hand Camera, Cycle Style. (Class 2.) 
good instruments of this kind on the market, which 
are well worth attention. 

With a viewing camera the operator is en¬ 
abled to compose or arrange his view on the 
ground-glass focussing screen, but in a hand camera 
t/his process is usually performed by means of a little 




























10 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGTJAPHY. 


appliance termed a view finder. There are many 
forms of such finders made, but the one most gen¬ 
erally found on hand cameras consists of a small lens, 
fixed in one of the upper corners of the camera front, 
and behind which is placed a sloping mirror. The 
view in front of the camera is projected by the lens on. 
to the sloping mirror and is thence reflected upwards 
on to a small piece of ground glass let into the top 
of the camera. On this ground glass the picture ap¬ 
pears in miniature as it will be taken on the glass 
plate when the exposure is made. 

All hand cameras using rectangular shaped plates 
should be provided with two such view finders, one 
for horizontal pictures and one for vertical pictures. 



FOLDING POCKET CAMERAS—(Class 4) 


Many hand cameras are of the “fixed-focus” type. 
This means that everything beyond a certain distance 
(usually about 7 to 9 feet) from the camera is in cor¬ 
rect focus on the plate, and for the majority of snap¬ 
shot pictures a camera if this kind will do all that is 
required. 

If the reader wishes to go in for portraits and figure 
studies, however, he must obtain a camera wfith a 
focussing arrangement so that nearer subjects can be 
successfully taken. Apparatus of this kind is de¬ 
scribed under class 2. This focussing can be per¬ 
formed by examining the picture on a focussing 
screen and then racking the camera in or out until 
it appears perfectly sharp, or by judging or measur¬ 
ing the distance at which the subject is placed from 
the camera and then racking the camera front out 











GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


11 


until it is set for that distance, as indicated on a 
small graduated scale termed the focussing scale. 

With portraits and figure studies the focussing ad¬ 
justment is specially required so as to enable the 
figures to be taken of sufficient size. 



Fixed Focus, Box Style Camera. 

On the cheaper kinds of hand cameras single lenses 
are usually fitted, and, as stated, for landscape work 
such lenses are very suitable, but a rapid rectilinear 
lens is to be preferred, if the extra cost can be 
afforded. The Waterhouse stops are not suitable for 
hand camera lenses and either the Iris or Disc 
Rotary form of diaphragm is always used. On 
account of the quick exposures necessary for 
hand camera work, it is seldom permissible to 
use a very small stop, and it will be found that 
F-8, F-ll, and F~16 are the three most suitable stops, 
F-8 being perhaps the one best suited for general use. 

The shutters supplied with hand cameras are ex¬ 
tremely varied in design, and it will suffice perhaps 
if I state the points which should be looked for in this 
portion of the apparatus. The shutter should be both 










12 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


set and released from the outside of the camera, and 
the latter operation should be performed without the 
necessity for undue movement or pressure. The shut¬ 
ter should be capable of being adjusted for various 
speeds and if there is an indicator to show the vari- 



The Eastman “Bull’s eye’’ Camera, Class 4. Takes a 
cartridge of roll-film sufficient for 12 pictures, 
31 / 2 x 31 / 2 - Size of camera: 4i/2x4%x5%-in. Weight: 
20 oz. Can be unloaded and loaded in daylight. 

ous speeds at which it works, so much the better. 
The range of adjustment should be from about one- 
tenth of a second to not less than one-fifteenth, and 
the shutter should also be capable of giving 'ime ex¬ 
posures if necessary. I may here remark that when it 
is desired to give a time exposure with a hand 
camera, it is usual to rest the instrument on a con¬ 
venient fence or post, or else on a tripod. A further 
point with regard to the shutter is that it should not 
uncover the plate when being «et. This is usually 
guarded against by a safety cap which covers the 
aperture in the shutter while the latter is being set, 
and then drops back out of the way ready for the ex¬ 
posure to be made. For ordinary snap-shot work a 
shutter speed of about one-twenty-fifth of a second is 
the most suitable, and the reader will not often re¬ 
quire to ma,ke a quicker exposure than this. The 
higher the speed of the shutter, the greater the 
danger of underexposure. 

As far as possible, all the movements should be 
accessible from the outside of the camera and the 
various working parts should be easily get-at-able for 
cleaning, adjustment, and repair. A numerical indi¬ 
cator should be connected to the plate-changing 






GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


13 



The “Brilliant” view finder, 
mechanism, in the case of Magazine Cameras, to 
show how many plates have been exposed, and it 
should be possible to remove the exposed plates at 
any time without interfering with those which may 
still be unexposed. 

VIEWING APPARATUS. 

SIZE OF THE OUTFIT. 

The first point the am^ateur must decide upon is the 
size of the pictures he wishes to take, and upon this 
will largely depend the outlay he will have to make. 
Now camera manufacturers have adopted a series of 
standard sizes for their instruments, and on one of 
these particular sizes the choice of the reader must 
fall. Very large cameras may be left out of the ques¬ 
tion as unsuited to the general requirements of ama¬ 
teur workers, and the following sizes considered as 
those from which a selection can be made. The 
figures given are the dimensions of the largest picture 
which each camera is capable of taking: 

4x5-in., 5x7-in., 5x8-in., 6i/^x8^A-in., 8xl0-in. 

Of the above sizes there are three which are far 
more in use than of the others. These are 4x5, 5x7, 
and 6V^x8i/^. If the reader wishes to keep both his 
initial and w’orking expenses as low as possible, he 
should content himself with the smallest size, but if 
he can afford it, I would certainly advise the pur¬ 
chase of at least a 5x7 instrument. When he has 
gained some experience and is fairly proficient, he 

























14 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


may perhaps feel tempted to go in for a 61^x814 
camera, and it is certainly very nice to be able to 
take an 61 / 2 x 8 % picture, when a suitable subject pre¬ 
sents itself. All things considered, however, a 5x7 
instrument is the best size for the beginner to com¬ 
mence with. By a simple contrivance known as a 
“kit” smaller pictures can be taken with a 5 x 7 
or larger camera, so that if the reader wishes to ex¬ 
periment in a small way at the start, it is a very easy 
matter for him to do so. 

A THE POINTS OP A GOOD CAMERAc 

Thev following particulars of the features which 
a good camera should possess w’ill be of service to the 
reader when making a choice of an instrument. Since 
the camera has to be carried about from place to 
place it is obvious that it should be as light as pos¬ 
sible, and that it should fold up into a small compass. 
These qualities, however, should not be obtained at 



Viewing Camera with conical bellows, swing and re¬ 
versing backs, and rising front. 

the sacrifice of rigidity, for it is upon the firmness of 
the camera and its support, that the sharpness of the 
resultant picture largely depends. The front of the 
camera should be provided with a rising and falling 
adjustment, so that the lens may be moved above or 
below the level of the center of the plate, though it 
should be exactly opposite this point when in its nor-' 

















































GUiDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


15 


mal position. The use of the rising and falling front 
is to enable the operator to vary the position of the 
picture on the plate so as to out off or add to the 
amount of sky or foreground included. 

The bellows should be made of leather or bellows 
cloth, and may be either parallel or tapering in shape. 
The latter kind is known as a “conical” bellows, and 
is generally preferred by amateurs on account of the 
saving in weight which their use allows. When a 
conical bellows is fitted, the purchaser should satisfy 
himself that if the back of the camera is moved close 
up to the front, as is the case when using a short- 
focus lens, no part of the picture on the plate is 
cut off. 

It is essential for good work that the camera should 
be provided with what is termed a “swing-back.” 
This means that the back of the camera which re¬ 
ceives the plate holder containing the plate, is pivoted 
horizontally so that it can be swung out of the verti¬ 
cal position to slant either backwards or forwards. 
In landscape photography this provision is often of 
value as it enables a better general focus to be se¬ 
cured, but its chief use is when photographing build¬ 
ings, and for such work it is absolutely essential. It 
frequently happens that in order to inciude the whole 
of a building from a particular standpoint, the camera 
has to be pointed upwards, and this movement at 
once throws the back out of the perpendicular. The 
swing-back, however, enables the vertical position to 
be regained without moving the camera as a whole. 
The rule is that when photographing a building, the 
plate must be truly vertical, or else it will be found 
that the vertical lines in the building being taken 
will converge together in. the picture. The swing- 
back will also be found useful in such cases as when 
taking a portrait of a person sitting down, or when 
taking the interior of a small roorn. Cameras are 
sometimes provided with a back which swings on a 
vertical axis as well as on a horizontal one, but this 
extra movement is rarely needed. 

The amateur will find it of great advantage to have 
a camera with a reversing back, that is a back which 
is detachable from the camera and which will fit in 
both a horizontal and a vertical position. The plates 
as will be seen from the foregoing list of standard 
sizes, are made oblong in shape, and the reversing 
back enables the plate to be used either vertically or 
horizontally, as required. A sheet of ground glass. 



16 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Viewing- Camera -with Square or Parallel Bellows, 
termed the “focussing- screen,” of the same size of 
the plate, is let in the back, and on this the picture 
to be taken is arrangea and focussed. When the 
camera is first set up and pointed at the subject to be 
taken, it -will be probably found that the picture ap¬ 
pears very indistinct and'fuzzy. The amateur may be 
surprised to also find that the picture appears upside 
down on the glass, but this is the natural resultant 
of the action of the lens, and is a peculiarity to which 
he will soon get quite accustomed. The front of the 
camera is then moved in or out by means of a rack 
and pinion movement until the picture appears nice 
and sharp on the ground glass. With a camera, 

sufficient adjustment should be provided to enable an 
extension of about 16 or 17 inches to be made. The 
woodwork of the camera should be of well-seasoned 
mahogany. 

THE LENS. 

The camera having been selected, the next article 
■which must receive the attention of the reader is the 
lens. There are four types of lenses in general use, 
each type possessing special features of its own. They 
are as follows: 

1. The single lens. 

2. The portrait lens. 

3. The rapid rectilinear lens. 

4. The wide-angle lens. 


















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


17 


A single lens, as its name implies, contains but one- 
“combination,” a combination being two or more glass 
elements cemented together with Canada balsam. The 
chief advantage which the single lens offers to ama¬ 
teur workers is that it is considerably low'er in price 
than the other types. For landscape photography, 
and for figure studies, a good single lens will prove 
extremely satisfactory, and it will also answer for 
portraiture if rapid exposures are not necessary. To 
the amateur, however, who wishes to do as great a 
variety of work as possible with one lens, the single 
type has a great disadvantage in that it is entirely 
unsuited for taking any subject where straight lines 
have to be included, such as in photographs of build¬ 
ings, copying drawings- etc., for in such cases it di.s- 
torts the straight lines into, a more or less curved 
form. 

A portrait lens is intended for portrait work and is 
designed with a view to render the exposure as short 
as possible. It is of but little use for other classes of 
work, so that unless the reader purposes to confine 
his work to portrait taking, he will be better advised 
to choose one of the other types. 

Undoubtedly the best kind of lens for all-round 
work, is the rapid rectilinear, and, as may be guessed 
from the term “rectilinear,” the pictures taken with 
a lens of this type are absolutely free from distorted 
or curved lines. This is obtained by using tw'o com¬ 
binations placed at a suitable distance apart, and each 
producing opposite kinds of curvature. The distor¬ 
tion produced by one combination is therefore qpun- 
teracted by the opposite kind of distortion produced 
by the other combination. 

A further advantage of this lens over Ihe single lens 
is that it is much quicker in working. A rapid recti¬ 
linear lens may be used with good results for any of 
the following classes of work: 

Landscape, architectural subjects, copying, por¬ 
traits, groups, and figure studies. It is also very 
suitable for instantaneous and snap-shot pictures. 

Rapid rectilinear lenses are made in many grades 
and of many types, and are marketed under various 
names, such as Rectilinear, Anastigmats, symmetri- 
cals, etc., the double Anastigmats being the highest 
grade. 

A wide-angle lens is intended for use in confined po¬ 
sitions. It takes in a much wider angle of view than 
the ordinary rapid rectilinear lens, and for photo¬ 
graphing high buildings in narrow thoroughfares, for 



18 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


interiors of small rooms, and for similar work, it is 
almost indispensable. A disadvantage attaches to its 
use, however, in the fact that the perspective of the 
view so taken appears exaggerated and displeasing to 
the eye, but since there is no means of taking many 
subjects except by the aid of such a lens, this altera¬ 
tion in the appearance of the perspective must be ac¬ 
cepted with good grace. 

From the foregoing remarks, then, it will be seen 
that the outfit of an amateur aiming at all-round 
photographic work should include a rapid rectilinear 
lens, and also if possible a wide-angle lens. The lat¬ 
ter article, however, is only occasionally required, and 
if expense has to be considered its purchase may be 
deferred. 

All lenses are provided * with “diaphragms” or 
“stops,” for the purpose of regulating the size of the 
aperture through which light can pass. There are 
three kinds of diaphragms fitted to lenses, viz., 
“Waterhouse” diaphragms, “Iris” diaphragms, and 
“rotary” or “wheel” diaphragms. A Waterhouse 
diaphragm is a small piece of sheet metal, having 



Fig. 3. Lens with Iris Diaphragm. 

a circular hole made in the center. This is inserted 
in a slot cut in the brass lens mount and blocks out 
all the light except that which passes through the 
hole A set of these is provided, having different 
sized holes. An Iris diaphragm consists of a set of 






















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


19 


thin plates overlapping- one another and fixed inside 
the lens mount. These are so arranged that when a 
circular ring that is fitted to the outside of the mount 
is rotated, the plates move in or out and so vary the 
size of the opening in the center, the action being 
very similar to the action of the iris of the human eye, 
A rotary diaphragm takes the form of a circular 
disc, with several different sized holes therein. This 
is pivoted on the lens mount, and as it is rotated so 
one or the other of the various holes comes opposite 
the center of the lens opening. 

The two former kinds of diaphragms are those most 
commonly used, and for general convenience the Iris 
pattern is greatly to be preferred. It has the advan¬ 
tage of being in one with the lens mount, so that it 
cannot be mislaid or left behind as is the case wuth 
the Waterhouse type. An Iris diaphragm is a little 
more expensive, but the extra quality is money well 
spent. Rotary diaphragms are often used for hand 
camera lenses. 



Fig. 4. Wide-angle lens with “Rotary,” or “wheel” 
diaphragm. 

The diaphragm apertures commencing with the 
largest wall be found to be marked as follow's: 

F-8, F-11, F-16, F-22, F-32, F-45, F-46. 

These figures mean that the diameter of the hole in 
the diaphragm, say the one marked F-8 is used, is 
one-eighth of the focal length of that particular lens, 
if F-11 is used then it is one-eleventh, and so on. 

When parallel rays of light fall upon a lens, 
they are reflected and brought to a point of focus on 
the other side. The distance of the spot at which this 
occurs from the lens is termed the focal length of that 
lens. Stops serve two useful purposes, they enable 
the amount of light falling on the plate to be regu¬ 
lated, and they enable a greater depth of focus to be 
obtained than the lens without a stop would give. 



















20 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


The meaning of the latter phrase is that, if when the 
stop marked F-S is inserted in the lens, the picture 
on the ground-glass shows that an object say 20 feet 
away is quite sharp, while those objects which are 
nearer and those which are more distant are fuzzy, 
then this undesirable condition of affairs may be 
remedied by the insertion of a smaller stop. If the 
stop marked F-IO is inserted, it will be found that the 
general sharpness or focus of the picture is greatly 
improved, and this will be still more marked if F-32 
be used. The smaller the stop, however, the greater 
the amount of light that is cut off, and, therefore, 
the longer the exposure required. A safe rule for 
guidance in this respect is to double the length of the 
exposure for every decrease which is made in the size 
of the stop. Thus, if with F-8 the correct exposure 
is 1 sec., then, with F-11, it will be 2 secs,, with F-16, 
4 secs., with F-22, 8 secs., and so on. 

To convey to the beginner some idea as to when to 
use a large stop and when to use a small one, 1 give 
the following hints, though it should be borne in mind 
that they are not to be taken as hard and fast direc¬ 
tions, but should be modified according to the particu¬ 
lar circumstances under which the picture is taken: 

For portraits, and for subjects requiring a very 
short exposure, use a large stop, say F-8 or F-11. 

For groups, and for cases where the objects to be 
taken are not very far apart, use F-16. 

For landscapes, buildings, and general view work, 
use F-32. 

The stops smaller than these need only be used in 
cases where extreme sharpness in the negative is de¬ 
sired. 

THE PLATE HOLDER. 

The plate holder holds the plate for exposure and 
fits the camera back between the ground glass screen 
and the camera body. It is not placed in position 
until after the picture has been focussed on the 
ground-glass screen. Then when the plate holder is 
inserted and the slide drawn, the sensitive side of the 
plate occupies exactly the same position as the 
ground-glass screen. Plate holders are generally made 
to hold two plates back to back, with a fixed 
opaque-division piece of sheet-metal or cardboard in 
between. This prevents the light falling on one plate 
during exposure from injuring the plate behind. 

When an exposure has been made on one of the 
plates the holder is removed from the camera, until 
it is necessary to make the next exposure. It is then 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


21 


replaced in a reversed position, thus enabling the sec¬ 
ond plate to be used. 

Most cameras as sold are provided with one double 
plate holder, but it is advisable to purchase at least 
two extra, so that when a day’s photographic outing 
is made, enough plates for six pictures can be taken. 
If three holders are bought, they should be numbered 
consecutively on both sides—1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 
so that the exposures may be recorded as made and 
tne plates subsequently identified in the dark-room. 

THE TRIPOD. 

In choosing a tripod the great point to study is 
rigidity, and also w'orthy of consideration, though of 
lesser importance, comes the question of compactness 
and portability. The fev/er the joints in a tripod, the 
more rigid it is likely to be, and for this reason a 
two-fold one is likely to be better than a three-fold 
one, though the latter can be packed into a more con¬ 
venient form for carrying. The tripod is provided 
with a top or head, of either triangular or circular 
shape, and to this head the baseboard of the camera 
is attached by means of a thumbscrew. 

Of all the items in the amateur’s kit, there is not 
one which is so liable to get lost or left behind as 
this tripod screw, and therefore, if the reader is wise, 
he will, by means of a string or light chain, attach 
it to the tripod head and thus make sure of its al¬ 
ways being found when wanted. The tripod head 
should be covered with felt or leather, as the camera 
can. then be screwed down without incurring scratches 
or other damage. 


SHUTTERS. 

If the reader wishes to go in for taking photographs 
of moving objects, a shutter must be obtained, though 
for all ordinary work requiring exposures of Vz a 
second and upwards, such an article is not absolutely 
necessary. 

The shutter is usually attached to the lens, and in 
its most simple form may consist of a piece of wood 
or metal, in which an opening is cut, and v/hich slides 
up and down in a frame supported by the lens. As 
the opening in the slide passes in front of the lens, the 
exposure is made, the duration of which depends 
on the size of the aperture and the speed at which 




09 


GUIDE TO PHCTOGUAPHY. 


the slide is movingr. In most shutters of this type, 
the motion is obtained by allowing the sliding piece 



iHodel Combination Sliding and Folding Tripod. 

«,0 fall by its own weight when released, though the 
speed thus obtained may be considerably increased 
by using an extended India rubber band to exert a 
pull. In more expensive forms of shutters, such as 
the Thornton-Pickard, roller-blinds are used with ex¬ 
cellent results, the shutter being set by simply pulling 
a cord and the release being made by squeezing an 
India rubber bulb attached to a closed tube, this 
action releasing the spring mechanism which actuates 
the blind. The characteristics of a good shutter are 
as follows: 

It should be light and not unwieldy in shape. It 
should work quietly and without imparting vibration 
or jar to the camera. It should be adjustable for 




















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


23 



Fig. 9. Universal Drop Shutter. In this shutter the 
sliding piece is propelled by the action of a rubber 
band as shown in the illustration. 



Fig. 9a, The Thornton-Fickard Time and Instan¬ 
taneous Shutter. Works on roller-blind principle. 
Set by pulling a cord, pneumatic release by press¬ 
ing an India rubber ball. 

































































24 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 



various speeds and for time and instantaneous 
exposures. It should be certain in its action, 
and it should enable the operator to actuate 
the release without taking- his eyes off the 
subject to be photographed. A good though not 
absolutely essential feature is that the shutter 
should be capable of being set without necessity of 
covering the plate during the operation. If the shut¬ 
ter does not admit of this being done, the difficulty 
can easily be got over by setting the shutter before 
drawing the slide of the plate. When photograph¬ 
ing children or animals, the best results are obtained 
tv'ith a shutter which works as noiselessly as possible. 


Excellent forms of shutters are those supplied 
plied with Iris diaphragm and that are provided with 
the mechanism for making instantaneous, time, and 


















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


2b' 


bulb exposures. There are several forms of these 
now on the market; all are provided with both finger 
and pneumatic bulb release and work automatically 
for instantaneous exposures from 1-100 to one second 
or over. We illustrate one of the most popular. 

THE RUBY LAMP. 

As will be explained further on, the sensitive plates 
upon which the photographs are taken must not be 
allowed to receive the faintest trace of white light 
or daylight except that which reaches them when 
the exposure is made in the camera. They are, how¬ 
ever, practically unaffected by a deep ruby-colored 
light, and, therefore, the operation of opening a 
packet of plates to till the camera, and the later op- 



Folding Ruby Lamp. 


erations of developing and fixing, must either be 
carried on in perfect darkness or by the aid of a 
lamp fitted with ruby-colored glass. An alternatiye 
method when the above operations are performed in 
the daytime is to cover the window of the room used 
for this purpose with a ruby cloth or fabric, but 
as this will be referred to again in the chapter on 
development, I will at present only consider the ques¬ 
tion of lamps. The cheapest form of ruby lamp has 
a metal top and bottom, the body being made of a 








26 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


square metal frame, covered with ruby cloth or 
fabric. The top and bottom portions of this lamp 
can be taken off, and the body folded up flat, so 
that the whole thing can be packed in a shallow 
cardboard box. The light is obtained by placing in¬ 
side the lamp a small night lamp or the end of a 
candle. This form of lamp is very useful for 
changing plates by, or even for occasional developing 
when traveling, but it is hardly substantial enough 
for everyday work. It is better to buy a lamp with 
a good metal body and fitted with a burner for oil. 
It should be capable of holding a fair supply of oil 
and the arrangement tor raising the wick should be 
accessible from the outside of the lamp. 



Fig. 19. The Chicago No. 2 Darkroom Lamp. Burns 
kerosene. With ruby and canary glass. These can 
be used separately or together. 
















































GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


27 


Although the color of the giass in the lamp may 
be red, it does not necessarily roiiow that the light 
which passes through it does not affect the plate 
to some degree. In order to test whether the light 
is actually safe or not, the following plan may be 
adopted: Place a plate in the plate holder in the 
usual way. Then close the holder and draw the slide 
so that four-fifths of the plate are exposed to the 
rays of the lamp. Heave the slide in this position 
for say two minutes. Then push the slide in so that 
only three-fifths of the plate are exposed, and leave 
for another two minutes. Then again push the Siide in 
so that only two-fifths are exposed, and leave for four 
minutes this time. Then push the slide so that it 
leaves only one-fifth of the plate exposed, and leave 
this open for another ten minutes. Thus one por¬ 
tion of the plate has not been exposed at all, the 
next has had two minutes’ exposure, the next four 
minutes, the next has eight minutes, and the last 
eighteen minutes. The plate should then be de¬ 
veloped in the ordinary way as explained in Chapter 
III., and it will be readily seen by comparison with 
the appearance of the exposed part how^ far the 
light has affected the remaining portions of the sen¬ 
sitive surface. The actual time that a plate is ex¬ 
posed to the light of the lamp during an ordinary case 
of development is not above say two minutes, so 
that if this exposure to the lamp produces no in¬ 
jurious effect, the light may be regarded as fair.y 
safe. The process of developing and fixing of course 
takes longer than two minutes, but all careful worx- 
ers make a point of keeping the plate carefully 
screened from the direct rays of the lamp, except 
when a close scrutiny of the image is necessary. 

DEVELOPING TRAYS. 

The smallest number of dishes which will be re¬ 
quired for developing the negative is two, one for 
the developing solution and one for the fixing solu¬ 
tion, but an extra dish should be procured, however, 
as in some instances an alum bath is required. 
These dishes are made in various materials, such as 
porcelain, fibre, and rubber. It does not matter very 
much w'hich of these materials is selected. Fibre 
dishes are, perhaps, as cheap as any, and they are 
also very light. The dishes chosen may be of differ¬ 
ent colors, say one black, one brown, and one white. 



28 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


This will make it easy to aHvays keep the samt 
dish for the same purpose—a precaution which should 
invariably be adopted. If the dishes are all one color, 



Fibre Developing Dish. 

it is an easy matter to mark them underneath, de¬ 
veloper,” “hypo,” and “alum,” respectively. 

TONING TRAYS. 

The dishes employed for toning should be deeper 
than those used for developing, as it is usual ^ 
tone a number of prints together in the same dish, 
and there should be plenty of room for the prints to 
be always kept on the move. Perhaps rubber or 
fibre dishes are the best for this purpose, and to 
facilitate manipulation of the prints the dishes 
should preferably be a size or two larger than those 
used for development. Two dishes will be required. 



Toning Tray. 

one for fixing and one for toning. In thus stating 
the number of dishes required I am assuming that 
the amateur will be able to obtain the use of some 
large sized domestic dishes, which are very useful 
for washing plates and papers in. If this cannot be 
done, a few large disli-es for this purpose should be 
purchased. ' 


































GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


SCALES. 

For the purpose of weighing out the various chem¬ 
icals employed in mixing his solutions, the amateur 
Tvill require a small pair of scales. The chief point 



Self-Balancing Scales. 

to be considered is that the pan in which the sub¬ 
stance to be weighed is placed should be made of 
glass. Glass is preferable to brass in that it is not 
likely to have any contaminating effect on the sub¬ 
stance placed therein, and also it is much easier t>o 
keep clean. 

GRADUATED GLASS MEASURES. 

These are required for measuring and mixing solu¬ 
tions, and two of different capacities should be ob¬ 
tained. Usually a two-ounce measure and a four- 
ounce measure is all that will be required. 

PRINTING FRAME. 

When a plate has been exposed and developed, it 
is termed a negative, and from the negative thus pro¬ 
duced, paper positives, or “prints,” are made by 
placing the sensitive surface • of a piece of prepared 
X)aper in contact with the negative and exposing it 
to daylight. To facilitate this operation a “printing- 
frame” is employed, made something like an ordinary 
picture frame, but with a removable back. The back 
is pressed down by springs, and thus keeps the paper 
in close contact with the negative. In most printing 







30 


GUIDE TO PHCTOGEAPHY. 


frames the back is made in halves, so that one- 
half can be raised occasionally during the printing 



Printing Frame.» Made of Cherry, with Piano Hinge. 

process, to ascertain what progress the printing is 
making. Printing frames are generally made of some 
hardwood, and that ]Dortion of the frame whereon 
the negative I'ests should be perfectly flat, other¬ 
wise the pressure of the springs may cause the glass 
to fracture. 

FOCUSSING CLOTH. 

A focussing cloth will be required to shut out the 
light from round the ground glass screen when 
focussing, to enable the operator to see his subject 
on the glass to advantage. A focussing cloth may 
be purchased ready m.ade, or the amateur may get 
a lady member of his family to make one for him. 

CARRYING CASE. 

Having collected the various items of his outfit 
together, the amateur will require a case to carry 
them in. For ordinary traveling, a canvas case is 
quite good enough, but. if the one case is to contain 
all the apparatus, it should be provided with a broad 
strap. A case in which to carry a tripod is more 
of a luxury than a necessity, as straps are usually 
provided with a tripod to fasten the three legs to¬ 
gether when folded. 






CHAPTER IL 

THE CHOICE OF PLATES OR FILMS. 

A photographic plate depends for its action upon 
the fact that the salt known to chemists as bromide 
of silver, when associated with some organic matter 
such as gelatine, has conferred upon it by even a 
momentary Hash of liglit the property of turning to 
the metallic silver when subjected to the action of 
certain chemicals. That is to say, when a piece of 
glass, coated with bromide of silver and gelatine, 
is exposed in a photographic camera, all those por¬ 
tions upon which the light has fallen are, in some 
subtle manner, which no one understands, changed 
in nature, so that when treated w'ith a chemical 
solution, called the “developer,” they are darkened, 
while those parts w’hich have been affected by light 
remain in their pristine whiteness. 

It should be pointed out here that red light has 
little power over a photographic plate. White 
light is composed of all the colors of the rainbow, 
mixed in certain definite proportions, and also of 
a certain amount of light which is invisible—light 
which is of such a deep red color that to our eyes 
it appears simply black, and light which is so highly 
violet, as it were, that we cannot see it at all. It is the 
violet rays and the ultra violet rays that have the 
greatest effect upon the photographic plate, and the 
power of the rays diminishes as you get farther away 
from the violet end of the spectrum, until—except un¬ 
der certain conditions, w'hich I shall explain later on— 
you come to the yellow, orange, red, and infra red, 
where the effect is almost nil. A photographic plate 
is not materially affected by red light, and this 
peculiarity gives the photographer an opportunity 
of conducting all those operations which would 
otherwise have to be gone through in the dark, by 
the aid of a light with w'hich he is able to see what 
le is doing. 

The incipient photographer should decide at the 
jutset upon one brand of plates and stick to it until 
le has mastered the initial stages of his art. He 
.bust not blame the results of his f)wn faults upon 


32 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


the plate-maker and try his luck with another brand, 
for that way lies confusion. 

Each different kind has its peculiarities, which 
must be studied to be understood, and this under¬ 
standing will never be arrived at by wandering about 
from one brand to another in the hope of finding one 
upon which a slip-shod photographer will be able 
to produce a good negative. The nomadic photog¬ 
rapher—and most amateurs come under this head, 
for, in the pursuit of their hobby, they are likely 
to wander about the country in search of the pic¬ 
turesque-should decide upon a popular make of plate 
that he is moderately sure to be able to procure in 
any out-of-the-way town in which he may find him¬ 
self. 

Celluloid films are coated with the sensitive emul¬ 
sion as well as glass plates, and in many cases the 
traveling photographer will do well to employ them, 
for they have some advantages over plates. They 
are much lighter, and a gross occupies but little 
more space than a dozen glass plates. Glass plates 
and celluloid films can in many cases be procured 
from the same makers and may be treated exactly 
alike, both as regards exposure and development. 

I will assume that the amateur photographer has 
settled to his own satisfaction w'hat brand of plates 
he intends to use, and as the treatment for films is 
precisely similar to that for plates as regards ex¬ 
posure, it will be understood that the following re¬ 
marks apply to both, unless otherwise stated. 

The first thing to do is to place the plate or film 
in the plate holder. Remember, the plate is VERY 
sensitive to light-sensitive in a way that few begin¬ 
ners can understand . or calculate for. Very great 
care must be taken that the dark room is safe, that 
no extraneous light is allowed to enter, for if it 
does all your future efforts will be useless. The 
best test is to shut -yourself up in the dark room, 
and when your eyes have become accustomed to the 
gloom, if you can see no light leaking in you may 
consider that the room is “safe,” but if you can 
see streaks under the door or round the blocked-up 
window, stop them up. 

The lamp by whose light you are to conduct most 
of your operations, because it is glazed wdth red 
glass, must not be considered of necessity “safe.” 
It must shed a particular quality of red light, and 
not too much of it. 

The beginner will do well to confine himself at 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


33 


first to the slow variety of plates. He will find 
that every maker produces plates of two or three 
different “speeds,” and he should not be led into 
purchasing a quick plate simply for the reason that 
it can be had at the same price as a slower one. 
Slow plates are easier to use because with them a 
stronger red light may be employed with safety, and, 
as a beginner is likely to take a long time over 
such operations as this placing of the plates in the 
holders, the plate that is least likely to be affected 
by undue lingering near the red lamp is the best 
for his purpose. 

First, dust out the inside of all the plate holders, 
for every grain of dust that settles on the plates 
will leave a little white speck upon the finished nega¬ 
tive. Then, as far away from the red light as you 
can comfortably see, open the packet of plates. 
Every pair will be face to face, with a piece of card 
at the edges to prevent them from actually touch¬ 
ing one another. If there is any doubt as to which 
is the face, remember that the shiny side is the 
plain glass—or celluloid film, as the case may be— 
and that, of course, is the back. Put them in the 
plate holder, one in each side. The sensitized side 
of the plate has to face the lens of the camera, 
so that the plate must be placed in the plate holder 
with the dull side next the slide. 

All the holders having been charged in this man¬ 
ner, and securely closed before leaving the shelter 
of the dark room, our photographer is ready for the 
fray. Let us suppose that he is sensible enough to’ 
have chosen a landscape or even a chimney-potscape 
for his maiden efforts, and does not intend to launch 
boldly into portraiture at the very beginning, for por¬ 
traiture is the most difficult branch of photography 
that he could select. 

LANDSCAPES. 

The very first difficulty which presents itself is as 
regards the length of exposure. How long shall the 
cap be kept off the lens? is the question, and it is 
a most difficult one to answer. We will suppose 
that the phototgrapher possesses only one lens, that 
he has decided to keep to one size of stop for the 
present—say P-32, and that he intends only to 
use 'One brand ot plates. Thus three of the sev- 
tral factors which govern the length of the exposure 
are fixed and the matter is considerably simplified. 
The chief factors which remain are the nature of 




31 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


the subject and the quality of the light with which 
it is illuminated. Let us suppose that a landscape 
is chosen for a first attempt. 

It is an old adage to say that you should expose for 
the shadows and let the high lights take care of them¬ 
selves. The darkest portions are to be found among 
the trees, and as a general rule it may be taken that 
the nearer the object is to the camera, the longer will 
be the exposure it will require, for there is less of that 
ever-present haze between it and the lens, and that 
haze, often invisible, reflects into the camera a con¬ 
siderable quantity of the kind of light which affects 
the plate. We will suppose that a summer’s day has 
been chosen, and the exposure is to be made some¬ 
where towards noon. The lens is F-32, and the p.ate 
a slow one. An exposure of three seconds should be 
about right, but there are so many things which have 
a modifying effect upon it that it is quite impossible 
to give more than the merest idea of its length. To 
expose correctly can only be learned by considerable 
experience, by repeated trials and careful comparisons 
of the results. Full directions will be given in the 
next chapter, when development comes under con¬ 
sideration, by which the novice can tell whether he 
has erred on the side of over or under exposure, and 
he will soon learn to estimate pretty correctly the 
approximate extent of the error. A few trials made 
with intelligence will speedily give him a very good 
idea as to the duration of the exposure for a given 
subject under given conditions, and from the knowl¬ 
edge thus gained he will be able to calculate the cor¬ 
rect exposures ror other conditions. 

This same view made the subject of a photograph at 
midday in the winter would require an exposure ol 
longer duration, according to the quality of the light. 
Or, again, towards evening, even in the middle of 
summer, when the sun is in the west, and the whole 
landscape is bathed in the reddening rays of the set¬ 
ting sun, the three seconds’ exposure may be multi¬ 
plied without fear of the picture being overdone. It 
is impossible to teach the art of correct exposure; it 
will only come as the result of experience. The be¬ 
ginner should do his best to keep the conditions as 
invariable as possible; that is to say, he should, just 
at first, keep to one class of subject and one time of 
day, as well as to one lens and one plate. Then he 
can get his exposure right with very little trouble for 
that one set of factors. 

We want our finished photograph to show a fair 



GUIDE TO PxIOTOGRAPHY. 


35 


amount of detail, but we must be careful, in cur 
anxiety to secure this result, that we do not over¬ 
expose the distant hills so that they become merged 
in the sky and get lost. If in the developed negative 
the landscape stands out almost white, while the sky 
is a dense black, and the hills much too plainly 
marked, the exposure has been too short, and the re¬ 
sult is extreme contrasts of black and white with no 
delicate half-tones and an absolute lack of detail in 
all the deeper shadows. If, on the other hand, there 
is any amount of detail in the landscape, while the 
sky is a thin grey, with the hills invisible, and there 
is a general dullness and lack of contrast about the 
whole thing, it may be sarely surmised that over¬ 
exposure is the fault. This matter will be more fully 
dealt with in the next chapter. For the present I will 
confine myself to again hinting that it is better to 
over than to under expose, for this defect can often 
be compensated for in development, while for the 
other there is no cure, and we will imagine that the 
exposure of this particular subject has been mas¬ 
tered so that we can pass on to the consideration of 
others. 

In an open view, w'here there are no heavy shadows 
in the foreground, the necessary exposure will be 
much shorter, and where a landscape is taken from 
the top of a hill or high building, the time should be 
eery short, indeed, for all portions of the view are 
distant. In a view of this description, where there is 
already a great lack of contrast, full advantage 
should be taken of the fact that under exposure, ac¬ 
companied by judicious “forcing” in development, 
tends to increase of contrast. Photographs taken in 
woods and wherever there are dense masses of foliage 
will require a much longer exposure than at first 
sight would seem necessary, owing to the fact that 
tne green light which finds its way through the inter¬ 
stices of the trees is to a great extent robbed of its 
actinic power, and is no longer able to affect the sen¬ 
sitive plate to the same degree. 

PORTRAITURE. 

To take a successful portrait is not by any means 
an easy thing to do. In the fir^t piace, a large amount 
of light is lequa'ed in o.aer to Ktep the length of ex¬ 
posure within reasonable bounds, and that light must 
come in such a direction that it will illuminate the 
face of the sitter in a suicuo.e rn^ni.er, and it is upon 



36 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


this that the success or failure of a portrait to a very 
great extent depends. 

A room with a large window should be chosen as 
the scene of operations, and a day when the sun is 
not shining through that window, but when its light 
is reflected in by a while cloud or a light-painted 
house opposite. Place the sitter about three or four 
feet from the window and slightly behind it, so that 
the majority of the light falls upon his face from the 
front and from above. This will leave the other side 
of the face in deep shadow—a grave fault which must 
be removed by the aid of a large looking-glass, or, 
failing that, a white screen such as can be impro- 
. vised by hanging a white sheet over a clothes-horse. 

■ This mirror or reflector should be placed beside the 
! sitter, but slightly in front on the opposite side to 
' the window, and its position may be varied and the 
' ciuantity and direction of the light from the window 
modified, by drawing the curtains from place to place, 
until that species' of illumination is obtained which 
appears pleasing and is calculated to give the best 
effect to the sitter’s particular kind of beauty. Re¬ 
member that, in portraiture, as in most indoor pho¬ 
tography, there is a tendency to very high contrasts 
in the resultant print. A face which is much more 
brightly lighted on one side than on the other, though 
not sufficiently so to seem objectionable, will appear 
in the photograph perfectly white and absolutely 
black—like so much chalk and soot. Do all you can 
to lessen the contrasts by carefully arranging the 
light before exposvire, and then don’t be in too great 
a hurry to put the cap on the lens, for a full exposure 
will materially help you to get the desired effect. Of 
course, it must not be overdone. There must be con¬ 
siderably more light on one side of the face than on 
the other, or it will appear perfectly flat and chalky, 
with many of the features invisible altogether. It is 
only necessary to remember that in indoor portraiture 
the contrasts are liable to exaggeration, and precau¬ 
tions should be taken against an undue hardness in 
the resulting print. 

Portraits can be taken very well in the open air, 
and, indeed, provided certain precautions be observed, 
this method is more likely to give satisfactory results 
in the hands of an amateur who does not possess a 
regular studio than that just described. In this case, 
to cut off the light which comes in the directions in 
which it is not required in order to give value to that 
which falls in the right direction, the sitter should 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


37 


be placed in an angle of a wall so that the building 
shields him from the light on one side, and if there 
be any means of cutting off some of the top light, so 
much the better. As an idea of the exposure required 
in such a case, between five and six seconds may be 
quoted, where the F-32 lens aperture is retained with 
the slow plates on a fine day in summer. This should 
be only taken as a basis from which the exposure 
may be calculated, for in a general way it will be 
better to employ a larger lens aperture and give a 
proportionately shorter exposure. A stop of four 
times the diameter, which would be called F-8, would 
necessitate an exposure, as already explained, only 
one-sixteenth as long, or under half a second; and 
I in this time the sitter will have little chance of mov- 
. ing, while the photographer has the opportunity of 
seizing that moment for exposure when the subject 
appears at his best, v^fithout being obliged to run the 
risk of spoiling everything by giving a warning that 
he is ready to take the picture. 

In the case of the portrait taken in the interior of 
an ordinary room, the larger lens aperture is a posi¬ 
tive necessity, for the exposure necessary with the 
smaller one would be so inordinately long as to tire 
out the most patient sitter. It is impossible to give 
even the vaguest idea of what would be the correct 
exposure for a portrait in an ordinary room: there are 
so many varying conditions to be considered that any 
attempt to take them into a.ccount in imagination 
would only be confusing. There is nothing for it but 
for the tyro to make a guess at its length and then 
to correct it according to results. Then, having ascer¬ 
tained what length of time will yield satisfactory re¬ 
sults under a certain set of conditions, its estimation 
I for varying cases is as much a matter of calculation 
I as anything else. Remember that when you double 
the diameter of the aperture of the lens you increase 
* its size fourfold, so that it will pass four times as 
much light and the photograph taken with it will only 
require one-quarter the time of exposure. The length 
of the exposure is inversely as the square of the 
diameter of the lens aperture. 

INTERIORS. 

Closely allied to portraiture in ordinary rooms is the 
photography of interiors, for in many respects there arc 
points of similarity. For instance, there is a decided 
tendency to the exaggeration of ihe contrasts, which 
has to be overcome in the same manner in this case 



38 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


as in the former: by equalizing the illumination as 
much as possible, reducing the depth of the shadows 
and toning down the brilliancy of the high lights, and 
by giving exposures of amply sufficient length. As a 
general rule, it may be taken that in the photography 
of interiors it is better to use a small stop in the lens 
and to give a corresponding long exposure. This will 
tend towards the reducing of the inordinate contrasts, 
and there is seldom any reason w'hy the time should 
be unduly hurried as it often must be in the case of 
portraiture. 

The first thing to be considered as regards interior 
photography, as in most other branches of the art, is 
the point of view from which the picture shall be 
taken. In the case of a small room, it is impossible 
to take in anything but just one corner of it—unless 
what is known as a wide-angle lens be employed—and 
the difficulty which immediately presents itself is to 
make that one corner appear in the photograph as 
representative of the whole as possible. En passant, 
a wide-angle lens is an instrument which has been 
designed to overcome this difficulty in connection with 
the small angle of view which the ordinary lens is 
able to embrace. It is a lens of very short focus in 
relation to the size of plate which it will cover, and 
consequently it gives much smaller images and can 
cram a large quantity of them on to a plate of given 
size. However, the result is also that the lines of per¬ 
spective are very much distorted in a photograph 
taken in this manner, and a small room appears like 
a long gallery filled with horribly disproportionate 
furniture. It is perhaps better to be content with an 
incomplete but true representation of an interior than 
to produce a view which shows more, but shows it in¬ 
correctly. In a general way it is best to take up a 
position for the camera in one corner of the room, for 
in a square room this gives a greater distance, and 
the opposite corner has better pictorial 'possibilities 
than a flat wall would have. The camera should be 
placed as nearly as possible at the height of the eye, 
so that the resulting photograph will represent the 
view as it would be seen by a person standing at the 
point whence the photograph was taken. 

Again, as regards exposure, it is impossible to give 
any definite instructions, for it may vary to any ex¬ 
tent from half a minute to half an hour, and under 
difficult conditions may easily reach half a day or 
even more. The only thing in the nature of a sugges¬ 
tion which I can give is to hint that the beginner 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


39 


might try an exposure about ten times as long as that 
which he would guess to be correct, and he probably 
will not be far out. He should be very careful that 
no windows form any portion of the picture, unless it 
is absolutely impossible to leave them out of it, for 
these, being far more brilliantly lighted than the 
other portions, will be sufficiently exposed when the 
rest of the picture requires a hundred times as long. 
The result of including them would be that the extra 
exposure, as it were, would, by the action known as 
halation, spread to the surrounding portions of the 
picture and fog them in that distressing manner 
sometimes seen in photographs of churches and other 
similar subjects. If the light from the window which 
must appear in the picture can be blocked out by such 
means as drawing a heavy blind, or hanging a thick 
sheet outside—the interior, of course, receiving its 
illumination from some other source—chere is no rea¬ 
son why the result should not be satisfactory, and, 
otherwise, a great deal may be done by the use of 
some form of non-halation or “backed” plates; but 
this matter will be more fully treated of later on. 
Care should also be taken that no polished metal ob¬ 
jects are allowed to reflect light directly into the 
camera, for if they do, except where the specially 
prepared plates are used, such things will appear sur¬ 
rounded \Vith a halo which will not add to their 
beauty. 

ARCPIITECTURAL SUBJECTS. 

Architectural subjects are deservedly great favorites 
with many photographers, for it is in ihe making of 
pictures that come under this heading that pho¬ 
tography finds one of its most pleasing fortes. Its 
practice is not attended with any particular difficul¬ 
ties, but it is one of those branches of the art which 
will reward, by conferring the ability to produce fresh 
beauties, the most painstaking labor of the most 
highly accomplished photographer. Although the 
merest tyro may begin on architectural work at once 
if he please, yet it is almost impossible to come within 
hail of finality in it, for very rarely is a photograph 
of a given building produced that is so good that, un¬ 
der certain conditions, a better one could not be made. 

All architecture is full of straight lines, therefore it 
is necessary to use when portraying it—more than in 
anything else—apparatus which will not give distor¬ 
tion. In the first place, a rectilinear lens is a necessity 
for reasons already stated, and in the second we shall 



:0 


cJUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


find the use of the rising front and the swing back with 
which the camera is fitted, but which, up to the pres¬ 
ent, has been somewhat of a mystery. 

Suppose you wish to take a photograph of the ex¬ 
terior of a high building. In order to include the 
upper portion iir your picture it will be necessary to 
tilt your camera upwards. Now, the upper parts will 
be farther away from the lens than the lower por¬ 
tions, conseqviently they will be reproduced smaller in 
proportion, and all parallel lines running upwards will 
follow the venal law of perspective and appear to con¬ 
verge, But artists do not recognize that parallel lines 
running upwards in a high building must appear ir 
the eye of an observer stationed below to converge 
tow'ards the top, and we are so used to seeing pict¬ 
ures with the vertical lines of buildings drawn strictly 
parallel, that a photograph in which they are shown 
convergent gives to the building a drunken, toppling- 
down look, which is not pretty. It is the function of 
the swing back to overcome this defect. Keep the 
back of the camera always strictly vertical when 
photographing architectural subjects, and the upright 
lines in the original wall be reproduced upright in the 
resulting picture. There is another metlfod by which 
the same result may be brought about, and that is by 
the employment of a rising lens board which obviates 
the necessity of tilting the camera at all so that the 
back is still kept vertigaA and the upper part of the 
view i§ brought within range by raising up the lens. 
This method has the disadvantage, how^ever, that in 
extreme cases it may be necessary to raise the lens to 
such an extent that the light passing through it can¬ 
not reach the lower portion of the plate, which is 
therefore left blank. As regards the actual length of 
exposure where architectural subjects are concerned, 
this is governed in rmich the same manner as in the 
case of landscape, but as a general rule tlte times 
should be shorter. A new white building will only 
require about half the tir^ that would be necessary 
for' a landscape view unciCT similar conditions as to 
lighting, and so on, wmile one that is built of red 
brick or that has become blackened with age will 
necessitate a correspondfiigly longer exposure. 

COPYING. 

It occasionally’ happens that the amateur may wish 
to nmke a photographic copy of a painting or engrav¬ 
ing of another photograph which has acquired talue 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


41 


owing to the death, perhaps, of the original of the 
portrait. Where any quantity of such work has to be 
done, special apparatus should be employed, whereby 
the camera may be always retained with its optical 
axis exactly at right angles to the plane of the pict¬ 
ure to be copied, but for the occasional requirements 
of the amateur a more makeshift method will be 
found to answer the purpose. The picture to be 
copied should be attached by any ready means to a 
vertical board placed as near as possible to a window 
through which a strong diffused light shines upon it. 
A very good plan is to attach it to the folding shutter 
of the window, if it has one, for that can be placed 
at different cingles until a position is found where 
the light falls upon it in the most suitable direction. 
The camera, w'hich must be of the long bellows 
variety, so as to admit of beilng racked out to a con¬ 
siderable extent, is placed exactly opposite it, both as 
regards height and lateral position, and it will be 
fg^nd that some considerable maneuvering is neces- 
saQ^ in order to bring the image into the desired posi¬ 
tion on the ground glass screen and of the right size 
and in good focus. When this is satisfactorily accom¬ 
plished, the smallest stop should be inserted in the 
lens, and a rather long exposure given. 

Care should be taken that the lighting is not too 
much from the side of the grain of the paper, or the 
brush marks, as the case may be', will be painfully 
apparent on the finished copy: but, on the oVher hand, 
the light must not fall too perpendicularly- upon the 
work, or some of it will bh reflected directly into the 
lens from the shiny surface, which last state is w'orse 
than the first. In the case of engravings or other 
pictures having black lines on a white ground, the ex¬ 
posure should be comparatively shor-t, in ojder to 
avoid the flatness which would result from -^akness 
of contrast in the negative, and in copying pointings 
and all colored objects very great advantage will 
accrue from the usfe of orthochromatic plates in con¬ 
junction with a yellow screen, which method will be 
more fully explained in another chapter. 

SNAP-SHOTS AND INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOG¬ 
RAPHY. 

There is a deal of misconception in the public mind 
with regard to what is called instantaneous Photog¬ 
raphy. Many people seem to consider that it is quite 



42 


GUIDE TO PK''TOGrA"HY. 


a distinct invention, and that it requires a peculiar set 
of apparatus. It is not so. If you possess a lens 
which is sufficiently perfect to enable you to use a 
large aperture without seriously impairing its defining 
powers, and you use a rapid plate, you will simpiy 
require a mechanical contrivance to uncover the lens 
and cover it up again very quickly, in order to blos¬ 
som out as a full-blown instantaneous photographer, 
only you MUST confine yourself to brilliantly-lighted 
subjects. It is here that the difference lies. An in¬ 
stantaneous photograph can only be taken in a good 
light. That which used to be known as a Detective 
Camera, because it was hoped that it would prove 
useful to the police—wduch it never has—and what is 
now more correctly known as the Hand Camera, is 
merely an ordinary camera fitted with an instanta¬ 
neous shutter, and so made to be convenient for use 
in the hand without any other support. 

There is a strong temptation towards indiscriminate 
snap-shotting when using a hand camera, for a new 
plate is so easily brought into position and exposed 
that the user is often inclined to waste it on an un¬ 
worthy subject. Care and thought should always be 
bestowed upon every photograph that is taken, 
whether it be a 8x10 landscape or a 4x5 snap-shot, 
and the knov/ledge which has been gained in land¬ 
scape and similar work should be applied to the ap¬ 
parently much simpler hand camera photography. A 
street scene can only be successfully taken in the 
brightest hours near noon, because it contains all 
those elements—heavy shadows in the foreground, 
etc.—which in landscape work necessitate a longer 
exposure, and as in this case the time cannot be 
drawn out because of the moving objects in the pict¬ 
ure, the other factor—light—must be increased in 
compensation. Out in the country, however, where 
the light is not partially absorbed by a heavy pall of 
smoke, those pleasing little studies of children and 
“grown-ups” and of pastoral life generally, of which 
the hand camera is such an excellent portrayer, may 
be successfully attempted in spring or autumn, while 
sea and sky effects—the brightest things in nature- 
can be photographed in midwinter, and even skating 
scenes, when the sun is shining, and there is plenty of 
snow about to reflect its light, come just within the 
scope of the hand camera bearer. 

The two great things to bear in mind when contem¬ 
plating instantaneous exposures are: hold the camera 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


43 


perfectly still, for the least tremor is disastrous, and 
be quite sure there is sufficient light upon the subject. 
Then with rapid plates and a quick lens and an eye 
well enough trained to choose a good position, a good 
subject, and to seize the right moment for exposure, a 
satisfactory photograph can hardly fail to result. 



CHAPTER III. 


DEVELOPMENT AND COMPLETION OF THE 
NEGATIVE. 

EQUIPMENT AND ARRANGEMENT OP THE 
DARK-ROOM. 

As pointed out in a previous chapter, the process of 
developing the negative has to be carried on by the 
aid of the light from a ruby lamp, and since all other 
light must be excluded, the room which is devoted to 
this work is usually termed the “dark-room.” If the 
reader is fortunate enough to possess a spare room 
at home, which can be set apart solely for photo¬ 
graphic operations, his path of progress will be ren¬ 
dered considerably more comfortable than if he has 
to develop his negatives when and where he can. 
I have known amateurs w'ho, when they have grasped 
the idea that inky darkness is an essential quality of 
the dark-room, have forthwith concluded that the 
“cupboard under the stairs,” or even the family coal 
cellar, was the very best place for their purpose, and 
not until they have run the risk of an untimely end¬ 
ing to their photographic career, by slow suffocation, 
have they realized that a more suitable scene of ac¬ 
tion might be found. It is quite a mistake to imagine 
that any cupboard will do for the dark-room, even if 
it is big enough for the photographer to get inside. 
Unless the work can be done comfortably, it is hardly 
likely to be satisfactory, and therefore it is much the 
best policy to select a room where both fresh air and 
elbow'-space exist in plenty. If the amateur has a 
room which he can devote entirely to photography, he 
will find the following items of furniture and fittings 
useful: 

A table on which to do the developing, though bet¬ 
ter still than this wmuld be a specially-made develop¬ 
ing sink; a cupboard or chest of drawers, in which to 
keep his stock of plates, papers, and various items of 
apparatus; and a set of shelves fixed on the wall, 
close to the developing table or sink, on which would 


45 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


be placed bottles of the various chemicals and solu¬ 
tions required for development. If gas is avaiiable, the 
burner bracket should be hxed just over the develop¬ 
ing table; and if the convenience of a continuous 
water supply is also to be had, the tap should be in 
an equally handy position. If a continuous water 
supply is not available, a small tank fixed to the wall 
above the sink may be made to answer the purpose. 
Failing this, a bucket or large jug of fresh water 
should be kept at hand. 

If a separate photographic room is not at the read¬ 
er’s command, the next best in order of convenience 
is the bathroom, and an excellent substitute it makes. 
In either case, daylight may be excluded by a light 
structure of wood of such a size as to just fit into the 
frame of the window, and covered with some opaque 
material. I say opaque, for even in the daytime it is 
better to develop by artificial light, as daylight is 
continually varying in intensity, and thus makes it 
difficuit to judge the density of the negatives. If, 
however, the reader prefers to work by daylight he 
can secure a fairly safe light by substituting for the 
opaque material two thicKiiesses of colored fabric, 
one thickness being a ruby color and the other a deep 
canary or orange. If this plan be adopted, the screen 
thus made should be as little exposed to sunlight as 
possible, otherwise the color will rapidly deteriorate, 
and the screen will be thereby rendered unsafe. Such 
a screen should certainly be tested from time to time. 

Having thus prevented the admission of white light 
through the window, attention should be paid to the 
door, and any stray light finding its way through the 
keyhole or crevices should be promptly checked by 
brown paper. While, however, the room should be 
made perfectly light-tight, it should not be air-tight, 
for unless the bad air is able to escape, and fresh air 
is able to replace it, the atmosphere will soon become 
oppressive and even injurious. 

There are some very convenient ready-made dark¬ 
rooms sold by tent makers, which are suitable for 
being erected in the garden or even inside one of the 
rooms of the house itself. They can be fitted up with 
sink, shelves, and ruby glass window complete, and 
if the amateur can afford such a luxury as this, it 
may often save him from proving an unintentional 
nuisance to the remainder of his household. If such a 
dark-room is used indoors, an ordinary oil lamp or 



46 


GUIDE TO PHCTOGRADHY. 


candle placed outside the ruby -window can be used 
to give the necessary light, and in this way the at¬ 
mosphere of the dark-room is kept both cooler and 
less vitiated. 

In the event of neither of the above - mentioned 
rooms being available, the amateur must make the 
best of the accommodation afforded by one of the 
ordinary rooms of the house. In such case, of course, 
he must exercise especial care and cleanliness in 
handling his various solutions, so as not to damage 
the carpet or furniture. 

THE CHOICE OF A DEVELOPER. 

A “developer” may be defined as a chemical solution 
which, when applied to a plate which has been suit¬ 
ably exposed in the camera, will bring out or make 
visible the image produced [by the action of the light 
on the silver bromide in the sensitive emulsion whth 
which the plate is covered. That image is invisible 
until the plate has been subjected to the action of the 
developer, so that when the amateur removes his ex¬ 
posed plates from the plate holder they will appear 
precisely the same as when first placed in the holder 
ready for exposure. In making the image visible, 
what the developer really does is to reduce the opaque 
metallic silver—those parts of the silver bromide 
which have been affected by the light—and to leave 
unaltered those portions upon which the light has not 
acted. When the plate has been developed, and the 
latent image has been brought out, it has to be 
“fixed” before it can safely be allowed to make an 
appearance in daylight again. Immediately the plate 
has been developed it is subjected to a short washing- 
in clean water and is then immersed in a “fixing” 
bath. After having been “fixed,” the plate is un- 
' affected in any further way by exposure to light, and 
all that remains to do is to thoroughly wash it and 
let it dry. 

But this explanation is carrying me ahead of my 
subject, for my present purpose is to indicate the nat¬ 
ure and uses of the various developing agents com¬ 
monly employed. This information may, perhaps, best 
be imparted in the following form: 

AMIDOL.—This developer is chiefly used for two 
classes of work: snap-shot negatives and developing 
papers. It is very energetic in its action and is a 
good developer for_ bringing out detail. When used 
for bromide papers,'no clearing bath is required. 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


47 


EIKONOGEN.—Very suitable for snap-shots and for 
portrait negatives, it is, however, but slightly solu¬ 
ble in water, and is, therefore, usually made up in 
quantity. It is rather difficult to obtain full density 
with this developer unless very pure crystals are em¬ 
ployed, and the exposure of the plate has been reason¬ 
ably correct. If combined with a density-giving de¬ 
veloper, such as quinol, good results may be secured. 

Ferrous oxalate.—T his is a developer which 
at one time w^as very popular for negatives, but of 
late has been largely superseded by other substances. 
To secure the best results the exposure of the nega¬ 
tive must be as nearly correct as possible. 

GLYCIN.—This is a slow developer, giving grey- 
black images free from fog. It is much used for 
negatives for photo-mechanical processes. 

HYDROQUINONE OR QUINOL.—This developer is 
a great favorite among amateurs on account of the 
cleanliness and ease with which it may be used. It 
gives blackish negatives and may be used repeatedly 
until exhausted. It is liable to produce harsh con¬ 
trasts with an insufficiency of detail, and is slower 
in operation than some of the other developing agents. 
It is very suitable for bromide papers. 

METOL.—Metol is one of the most energetic of mod¬ 
ern developers and with short exposures produces 
negatives of extreme softness. A combination of 
metol and hydroquinone makes a very satisfactory 
developer. « 

PYROGALLIC OR PYRO.—Of all developers, this is 
the one which is most widely known and has the long¬ 
est reputation. By suitably modifying the constitu¬ 
ents of the solution employed, pyro enables excellent 
negatives to be obtained, even in cases where the 
exposure has been far from correct, and in the hands 
of an intelligent user this power becomes of consider¬ 
able value and importance. Further than this, it is 
fairly rapid in its action, any amount of density can 
be obtained, and the resultant negatives are of good 
printing quality. As an all-round developer for nega¬ 
tives, pyro is still without a superior. 

ROD! NAL.—Another name under which rodirtal is 
sometimes sold is paramidophenol. It is chiefly used 
for developing hand camera negatives, but w'hile it 
brings out plenty of detail, there is occasionally 
trouble in obtaining satisfactory density. It is also a 
useful developer for bromide papers. 

The chemical substances mentioned in the above list 



48 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


are termed “agents,” and are not used by themselves 
to produce development, but are mixed in certain pro¬ 
portions with a substance termed the “alkali,” and 
with a bromide termed the “restrainer.” The various 
portions of agent, alkali and restrainer are dissolved 
in a suitable amount of water to form the developing 
solution. Where these are all mixed together, the 
developer thus formed is termed a “one-solution” 
developer. As, however, modifications in the relative 
proportions of the constituents will enable the oper¬ 
ator to priDduce corresponding modifications in the 
character of the resulting negative, it is often a con¬ 
venience to have two solutions mixed up, one con¬ 
taining the agent and the other the alkali. Then, by 
taking more of the one solution and less of the other, 
or vice versa, the development of the negative may be 
had more fully under control. Thus the rate of de¬ 
velopment may be hastened or retarded, and the con¬ 
trasts in the negative accordingly increased or dimin¬ 
ished. At tne present moment the reader may not fully 
understand the significance of these facts, but the 
matter will be made clearer to him when I come to 
deal with the actual process of development. From 
the list of developing agents which I have just given 
the reader will see that he has a pretty wide field 
from which to choose. With a developer, as with the 
particular brand of plate, once the selection has been 
made, it should be adhered to, and its capabilities and 
peculiarities thoroughly mastered. Now, different 
makers of plates recommend different formulae for 
development, even though the same constituents may 
be employed in each, and whatever the brand of plates 
selected, while the general facts will still hold good, 
the particular formulae recommended by the makers 
of those plates should be adhered to when mixing the 
developer. 

HOW TO MIX THE DEVELOPER. 

The various chemicals of which the developers are 
composed are usually supplied in powders or crystals, 
and they should be stored in glass bottles, wfiih close- 
fitting corks. India rubber corks should always ba 
used in the case of potash or soda. Each bottle 
should be carefully and accurately labeled with the 
name of the substance contained therein, and the 
label should be as far as possible indestructible. That 
is, the inscription should be either sand-blasted on to 
the glass or should be written on a gummed label, 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


49 


which should be afterwards sized and varnished. No 
chemical or solution should be placed in a bottle 
which has previously contained another substance, 
unless the bottle has first been thoroughly washed 
out. On no account should any solution be poured 
into a labelless bottle, as the amateur will almost 
certainly forget just what the composition of the 
solution was, and when that is the case, it is useless 
to him. If space is limited, developers may be pur¬ 
chased in the form of powders. These aevelopmg 
powders are put up in small packages, occupying very 
little room, and when a developing solution is re¬ 
quired, it is simply necessary to dissolve one or more 
powders in water, according to instructions. 

The dissolving of solid substances in water may be 
hastened by tw'o methods; Firstly, by crushing the 
substance into a powder or very small pieces, and 
secondly, by using hot water instead of cold. The 
solution should, however, alw^ays be allowed to eool 
before it is used to develop with, otherwise the firm 
of the plate will be injuriously affected. 

HOW TO DEVELOP A NEGATIVE. 

I will now assume that the reader has exposed a 
half-plate in the camera, and that he is ready to 
make his first essay at devetopment. I will further 
assume he has prepared the solutions required accoid- 
ing to the special instructions contained in the pack¬ 
age of dry plates that he has used. He must then 
proceed as follows: Light the ruby lamp and place 
the developing-dish about twelve inches in front, or 
at such a distance as you can just see what you are 
doing. Next open the plate-holder, take out the ex¬ 
posed plate, and after lightly brushing it with a flat 
camel’s-hair brush to remove any particles of dust, 
place it film-side uppermost in the developing-dish. 
Then, with a steady, sweeping motion, pour the de¬ 
veloper over the surface of the plate. It is absolutely 
essential that the developer should cover the whole 
plate and that no air bubbles should be allowed to re¬ 
main, otherwuse the negative will be disfigured by 
markings due to unequal development. No signs of 
the picture will appear for about a minute or so, but 
the dish should be gently rocked during this period, 
to keep the developer in motion. If the exposure has 
been about correct, the plate will then gradually 
darken in places, these representing the portions of 
the picture to show up, while in a portrait, the white 



50 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


shirtfront and collar will appear, to be quickly fol¬ 
lowed by the face. The reader should remember that 
in a negative everything is reversed—that is, a w'hite 
collar comes out black, while a black hat will show 
white, or rather almost clear glass. In the finished 
negative. This being clearly borne in mind, the reader 
will be better able to follow the progress of the de¬ 
velopment. After the whitest portions of a picture, or 
the “high-lights,” as they are termed, have appeared, 
they will be followed by the half-tones, and ultimately 
by the shadows. If the picture appears gradually, in 
these successive stages, the development should be 
allowed to continue until all the details are fully 
brought out. If the plate is then held up to the ruby 
lamp and examined, the high-lights should be nearly 
opaque, while the deepest shadows should be trans- 



Fig. 25. Examining a negative during development. 

Illustration shows use of rubber sleeve protectors. 

parent, but should clearly show the details. In a 
landscape, for example, the opaque part should be the 
sky, or the side of a whitewashed cottage, while the 
transparent part should be in heavy foliage on trees 
or bushes, but the leaves and branches visible in the 
actual landscape should also be faintly seen in the 
negative, i. e., the deepest shadows should not appear 
as absolutely unaltered patches of the film. The 
edges of the plate which have been held by the rebate 
of the plate-holder will, of course, remain perfectly 
w'hite, and it is a fairly safe rule to continue develop¬ 
ment until every part of the plate which has been 
exposed turns slightly grey, while the edges remain 
clear white. 

The moment these edges show any signs of becom¬ 
ing grey, the plate should b^ removed from the de- 












GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


51 


veloper and washed. With most plates there is an¬ 
other means of ascertaining if development has been 
carried far enough, and this is to examine the nega¬ 
tive from the glass side, or back, by renected fight. 
If the development is sufficient, the high-lights and 
the less deep half-tones will be visible from this side. 
Until the development has been completed the dish 
should be rocked from time to time as mentioned. 

After the plate has been developed, it should be 
W’ashed under the tap, or in a dish of clean water, 
and should then be immer.^d in a fixing-bath, com¬ 
posed as follows: 

Hyposulphite of soda . 16 ozs. or 20 parts 

Water up to . 80 ozs. or 100 parts 

Hyposulphite of soda is commonly referred to as 
“hypo.” 

The above quantity of solution will serve for fixing 
a large number of plates, and if only a small quantity 
is required for a few plates, it can be easily mixed, 
provided the same proportions are maintained, viz., 
four parts of water to one part of hypo. 

The hypo bath does not take very long to prepare, 
and may be fnixed, if preferred, just before develop¬ 
ment is commenced. The plate should be placed in 
the fixing-bath and left for several minutes, until it is 
completely fixed. This may be readily judged by ex¬ 
amining the back of the negative by reflected light. 
If any of the unaltered silver .bromide is still undis¬ 
solved, it will appear as a creamy white patch, and 
until the whole of this has been dissolved away, and 



Fig. 27. Rack for draining water off negatives after 
washing. The upright portions fold flat when not 
in use. 








52 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


nothing but the picture on the clear glass remains, 
the fixing process should be continued. 

After the negative has been fixed, it should be thor¬ 
oughly washed, either in running water or in several 
changes, the period required to eliminate all the hypo 
being about one hour, provided a thorough and con¬ 
tinual change of the water is arranged for. 

When washed, the negative may be allowed to dry. 
Heat should not be applied to effect this quickly, as 
the gelatine will be in great danger of becoming 
melted. The negative should be placed in an almost 
upright position, in a dry, cool place, w'here no' dust is 
likely to collect. 

HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND CORRECT UNDER 
AND OVER EXPOSURE. 

The foregoing description of the progress and de¬ 
velopment was based on the assumption that the 
exposure of the plate in the camera had been fairly 
correct. It is, however, extremely likely that the 
beginner will for some time, at any rate, make numer¬ 
ous mistakes in judging the correct exposure, and I 
will, therefore, now proceed to explain how such mis¬ 
takes may be compensated for by a modification of 
the development. The reader will remember that I 
said the high lights in the picture would first begin to 
appear about a minute after the commencement of 
the development, if the exposure had been approxi¬ 
mately correct. We will now suppose, however, that 
at the expiration of that time no indication of the 
picture appeared, and that in fact two or three min¬ 
utes had elapsed before the plate first began to 
darken. If, after this, the high-lights and half-tones 
came up quickly, and yet, in spite of a prolongation of 
development, no detail appeared in the shadows, it is 
a pretty sure sign that the plate was under exposed. 
The opposite case to this, viz., over exposure, is indi¬ 
cated by the picture appearing considerably before 
the expiration of a minute, and, instead of coming out 
regularly and gradually, it makes its full appearance 
in a very short space of time. In cases of gross over 
exposure, the whole picture seems to flash out at 
once, almost directly the developer is poured over the 
surface, and the film appears to go gray and foggy. 
Of the above faults, under exposure is the more seri¬ 
ous, as, in many cases, it is impossible to bring detail 
out in the under exposed parts, no matter how the 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


53 


development may be modified. With care all but very 
extreme cases of over exposure can be sufficiently 
controlled to enable a satisfactory negative to be ob¬ 
tained. 

If the negative appears to suffer from under expos¬ 
ure, as indicated above, the following procedure 
should be adopted: 

Pour the developer back into the cup or mixing 
glass, and replace it in the developing dish with clean 
water. The developer must then be weakened or 
diluted with about an equal bulk t)f water. Pour off 
the water from the dish and continue the development 
with the w^eakened developer. The developer should 
be allowed to act until the high-lighis have become 
quite opaque, and probably by that time a good deal 
of the details in the shadows wfill have appeared. I 
may here give the reader a hint as to altering the 
strength or proportions cf the developer in use in the 
developing dish. This should never be done by adding 
the water or fresh solution to the developer while it 
is in the dish, as it is impossible for a thorough mix¬ 
ing to take place in this way, and unequal or patchy 
development of the plate wall result. The developer 
should first be poured off into the mixing glass, and 
the requisite addition made. It can be then returned 
to the dish with comparative safety. 

The correction of over exposure will require more 
prompt attention than that of under exposure, for in 
the former case the mischief is soon accomplished. 
As soon as there is an indication that over exposure 
is the fault, the developer should be at once poured 
back into the graduate glass, and very greatly re¬ 
duced in strength by adding water. Also put in a few 
drops of a strong solution of bromide of ammonium. 
The development can then be continued until the 
contrasts appear likely to be about normal, or until 
the action of the solution appears to be less vigorous. 

HOW TO INTENSIFY A NEGATIVE. 

The reader wfill sometimes find that a negative, after 
development and fixing, appears thin; that is, there is 
plenty of detail and gradation, but the image is not 
sufficiently opaque to yield satisfactory prints. Tnis 
may be due to one of several causes. For instance, it 
may be caused by over exposure; by removal from 
the developer before sufficient density was obtained: 
or by the thinness of the emulsion with wffiich the 
plate was coated. A negative of this kind may be 
considerably improved by the process known as “in- 



54 


GUIDE TO PrIOTOGRAPPIY. 


tensification.” The following is the method of pro¬ 
cedure: 

A.tter the negative has been fixed it must be thor¬ 
oughly w'ashed and then placed in a strong alum bath 
for about ten minutes. After a further washing it is 
placed in the intensifying solution, made as follow's: 

Mercuric chloride. V 2 oz. or 5 parts 

Hydrochloric acid.45 grains or 1 part 

Water .10 ozs. or 100 parts 

A note of warning w'ith regard to mercuric chloride: 
This is a strong poison and is sometimes known as 
corrosive sublimate or bichloride of mercury. It 
should not be allow'ed to come into contact with any 
cuts, etc., on the hands or fingers. 

The negative should be kept in the above solution 
till it becomes a grayish w'hite all over and then thor¬ 
oughly washed and placed in a second bath com¬ 


posed of: 

Liq. ammonia (U. S. P.). 1 oz 

Water up to .20 ozs 


When the action of this bath is completed, as may 
be noted by the cessation of a visible change in the 
color of the negative, the latter is taken out and 
thoroughly washed and dried. 

HOW TO REDUCE A NEGATIVE. 

In contradistinction to the foregoing, a process 
called “reduction” may be necessitated, if the nega¬ 
tive should be so dense as to make it difiicult to ob¬ 
tain a print. This is usually caused by tfie develop¬ 
ment having been too prolonged. The following is 
the method of obtaining a reduction of this excessive 
density. 

The negative must be thoroughly w'ashed after fix¬ 
ing, and should then be placed in a dish and covered 
with a clean solution of hypo. A solution of potas¬ 
sium ferricyanide is then made, as follows: 


potassium ferricyanide .1 oz 

Water up to .10 oz 


Pour off the hypo from the dish into a measuring 
dish, add a few drops of the above solution and again 
pour over the plate. Reduction will at once com¬ 
mence and will proceed pretty rapidly, the rate de¬ 
pending upon the amount of ferricyanide added. As 
soon as the negative is nearly reduced enough, take 
it out of the bath and thoroughly wash. The image 
will be reduced a little more curing w'ashing. The 










GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


55 


■ • 


above formula is that known as How’ard Farmer’s 
reducer. 


FOG AND ITS CAUSES. 

Fog on a negative may result from several causes. 
It may be caused by defective light from the dark¬ 
room lamp; by a leaky plate-holder allowing daylight 
access to the plate; by gross over exposure; or from 
defective emulsion on the plate. To protect plates as 
much as possible from the first of the above causes it 
is a good plan to cover the developing dish over dur¬ 
ing the greater part of the time development is pro- 
j ceeding, only removing the cover for the purpose of 
examination, or of altering the developer. To avoid 
I fog from the second cause, plate-holders containing 
I plates should be kept out of sunlight, or direct day¬ 
light, as much as possible, and also should be covered 
round by the focussing cloth, while the slide is drawn 
during exposure. A kind of fog known as “green 
fog’’ sometimes occurs, and usually this may be 
traced to either using too much alkali in the compo¬ 
sition of the developer, or to the action of the impure 
atmosphere in which the plates may have been stored. 
A remedy for green fog is the application of the 
reducer, as described above, and a subsequent inten¬ 
sification of the negative. 

PINHOLES. 

Pins may not appear to have a very direct connec¬ 
tion with photography, but I imagine that the begin¬ 
ner will not have produced very many negatives be¬ 
fore he discovers the nature of “pinholes.’’ These are 
tiny transparent spots which make their appearance 
on the film during the development and fixing of the 
negative. These transparent spots of course allow 
light to pass through freely, and, therefore, when a 
print is taken from the negative, every pinhole is 
represented by a little dark spot on the print. The 
chief cause of pinholes is dust on the plate during 
exposure, and the surest way to prevent their appear¬ 
ance is to dust out the plate-holders every time plates 
are to be put in, and also to lightly dust the surface 
of the plates themselves before putting them in the 
holders. This operation is best performed with a 
broad, flat camel’s-hair brush, which should be per¬ 
fectly clean and dry. If pinholes do occur in a nega¬ 
tive in spite of all precautions, the best way to mil- 



56 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


lify their ill effects is to touch or spot them out by 
carefully working over them with a lead pencil. 
Transparent spots of a larger kind than pinholes may 
be caused by the presence of air bubbles in the de¬ 
veloper, and as these are more difficult to remedy 
than the pinholes, great care should be taken when 
developing to see that no such air bubbles are allow’ed 
to exist. 

HALATION. 

Halation or spreading of the high-lights usually oc- , 
curs in negatives of subjects in which high-lights and ■ 
very deep shaaows occur, as, for instance, in an inte¬ 
rior of a building, where a strongly-lighted window 
has to be included on thb same plate as a dimly- 
lighted portion of the room. For the shadows a long 
exposure must be given and this exposure, being far 
in excess of that required for the window, the light 
from the latter seems to spread and form a mist or 
halo round that portion of the plate. This misty ap¬ 
pearance is caused by the reflection of some of the 
high-light which has managed to pass through the 
film to the back of the plate. There are two ways out 
of the difficulty; one is to use specially coated plates— 
non-halation plates—and the other to “back” ordinary 
plates. To “back” a plate means to coat the glass 
side of the plate with some substance which will ab¬ 
sorb any light which falls upon it, and thus prevent it 
being reflected back again. The following is a useful 
formula for preparing this “backing” mixture. 


Burnt sienna . 2 ozs 

Caramel . 1 oz 

Gum mucilage . 1 oz 


Grind the above constituents together thoroughly 
and then add 2 oz. of methylated spirit. This mixture 
may be easily applied to the back of the plate with a 
soft brush or a piece of cotton wool. It can be readily 
wiped off again, prior to development. The operation 
of backing the plates must, of course, be performed 
by the aid of the ruby lamp, in the dark-room. 

VARNISHING THE NEGATIVE. 

All negatives should be varnished, as a matter of 
protection. It is quite permissible to take prints from 
an unvarnished negative, and, indeed, there are many 
workers who will take the trouble to protect their 
negatives by a coating of varnish. As, however,Ahere 
are many negatives obtained which, from the nature 







GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


57 


Of the subject, it is impossible to replace, I think the 
practice of varnishing is not an extravagant precau- 
take_ against possible injuries from stray 
splashes of liquids, or the effects of a damp atmos¬ 
phere. All photographic dealers supply a clear hard 
varnish for this purpose, and the method of its appli¬ 
cation is as follows: 

First warm your negative by gently and evenly ap¬ 
plying heat until it feels quite hot to the hand. Then 
hold the negative horizontally, film side upwards, on 
the finger tips, and pour a pool of varnish in the cen¬ 
ter. The negative should then be slightly tilted, first 
one way and then the other, until the varnish has 
traversed every portion of the surface of the film 
Then tilt the negative up at a considerable angle and 
drain off the surplus varnish into the bottle The 
negative may then be gently dried in front of a fire 
and allowed to cool. 

STORING NEGATIVES. 

When the amateur has made some progress in the 
practice of photography, he will begin to accumulate 
a number of negatives of value and interest, and the 
question will arise as to how these may best iDe classi¬ 
fied and kept. A simple and inexpensive method is to 
place each negative inside a plain envelope, and on 
the outside of this inscribe the subject and the cir¬ 
cumstances under which the picture was taken. For 
example, one inscription might read thus: “Lake 
steamer entering Chicago harbor. June 25th 1900 
-’s ‘-’ plate. Stop F-11. Exposure, one-thir¬ 
tieth sec.” Details such as these often prove of serv- 



Fig, 28. Wooden box for storing finished negatives. 









































58 


GUir-S TO PHCTOGP.APHT. 


ice for future reference. The negatives thus encased 
may be stored in ordinary cardboard boxes, and each 
box labeled outside with the nature of its contents, 
thus: “Summer Holiday, 19(X). Chicago and neighbor¬ 
hood.” Some readers may prefer to buy negative 
boxes ready made, and these can be obtained at a 
comparatively small cost. They are provided with 
grooves info which the negatives drop, and each box 
.contains space for from twenty-five to one hundred 
plates. If these are numbered, and a list of the sub¬ 
jects pasted inside the box-lid, any desired negative 
can quickly be found. 



CHAPTER IV. 


MAKING AND MOUNTING PRINTS. 

The initiate in the mysteries of photography has 
now been carried in imagination through all the oper¬ 
ations necessary in the making of the negative. He is 
the possessor of several first-class but imaginary neg¬ 
atives—pictures in which all those portions which 
should be white are black and those which should be 
black are represented by clear glass. He will recog¬ 
nize that this is merely a means to an end, and that 
the way to produce a positive picture from a negative 
is to place a sensitive surface in contact with it, and 
to expose to the action of light so that the rays 
passing through all those portions of the negative 
which are transparent, will turn the sensitive surface 
black in those places, while the dark parts of the 
negative will protect it from the darkening influence, 
and so form a print which is positive—which has its 
lights and shades in the correct relation to one 
another. The process by which this result is obtained 
is known as Photographic Printing, and the resultant 
positives, made on sensitized or printing papers, are 
called prints. 

Until quite recently Albumen Paper was used al¬ 
most exclusively by \he photographer, but w'hile this 
paper yields most excellent and permanent results, 
it is extremely tedious and troublesome in manipula¬ 
tion, and of late years the field which it held so long 
has been almost entirely pre-empted by the ready 
prepared products. 

These prepared papers are of many kinds, and are 
known, generally, as Aristotype Papers. The word 
Aristotype, however, covers a very broad field, as 
nearly all the products are made after different for¬ 
mulae and each brand has little peculiarities of its 
own that require special treatment in manipulation. 
For this reason it is impossible to outline a method 
of operation that will exactly suit all kinds, and the 
instructions herewith given are but general. 

These various papers are known, generally, - as 
Collodion, Gelatine, Bromide, Ferro-Prussiate, etc. 


60 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


Some are Printing Out papers,—other Developing pa¬ 
pers. From the large number of brands on the mar¬ 
ket it is possible to obtain almost any grade or tex¬ 
ture desired, such as smooth or glossy surface,, mat 
surface, etc. 

The various manufacturers enclose with each pack¬ 
age of their product specific instructions for manipu¬ 
lation, and the amateur will do well to follow same 
closely. 

PRINTING AND TRIMMING. 

In order to hold the paper in contact with the 
negative during the operation of printing, a special 
frame is employed, with a hinged back and springs 
to hold it down, this being known as a Printing 
Frame. The back is hinged so that while one-half of 
the print in progress is tirmly held by one spring in 
its position behind the negative, the other half can 
be turned back by the printer in order to see what 
progress has been made, with the full assurance that 
it will drop back exactly into position for further 
exposure, if that should be necessary. 

Though printing paper is sensitive to the action of 
the light, it is not so to anything like the same degree 
that a photographic plate or film is. For Instance, 
gas-light has practically no effect whatever upon it, 
and all the operations of placing it in the printing 
frames and so on, can be conducted in weak daylight 
with impunity, instead of in the dark-room. 

To make a print, the first thing to do is to remove 
the back from the printing frame by shifting aside 
the two pressure springs and lifting it out, when, the 
frame being laid face downwards on a table, the 
negative to be printed is placed in it, with the film 
side uppermost. Then a piece of sensitized paper is 
placed in position on the negative, with its shiny side 
downwards, so that the two films are in contact with 
one another, the back is replaced, the springs brought 
to bear upon it and the whole placed in some position 
where plenty of light will fall upon it. On an ordi¬ 
narily bright summer day, printing frames placed on 
the window sill on that side of house on which the 
sun is not shining, will, with negatives of average 
density, yield prints of good quality at a fair rate of 
printing. Of course, the amount of exposure which 
a given print will require depends not only upon the 
quality and brilliancy of the light, but also very con¬ 
siderably upon the density and the color of the nega- 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


61 


tive under which it is exposed. Moreover, the speed 
at which a print is made affects its ultimate quality 
to a marked extent, and a long exposure in a poor 
light, tending to brilliancy in the resultant print, 
will give a more plucky picture, with higher contrasts 
from the same negative than one in which the ex¬ 
posure has been a short one to a brilliant light. Extra 
brilliancy is not always desirable, as, for instance, 
when the contrasts in the negative are already as 
high as is at all necessary, and in this case a short 
exposure to very bright light—even to direct sunlight, 
in extreme cases—will give the best results. On the 
other hand, when the negative is unduly thin and 
weak, as when it has been over exposed, a brighter 
print than would normally result may be obtained by 
slow printing in a very weak light, or by allowing the 
light to filter through a piece of tissue paper, placed 
over the printing frame. 

Prints upon printing out papers should always be 
more deeply printed than it is desired that the fin¬ 
ished picture shall be, for they always fade more or 
less in the subsequent toning and fixing operations. 
It is difficult to give definite directions for the exact 
extent to which this extra printing should be carried, 
especially as it varies for different papers and differ¬ 
ent toning solutions, but a little experience will soon 
reveal the amount of fading which has to be guarded 
against with any particular materials, and precau¬ 
tions can be taken accordingly. 

TRIMMING. 

The prints should be neatly trimmed before toning, 
taking off the blank edges caused by the printing 
frame. 

The majority of views are improved by trimming 
off a liberal margin; especially is this true of views 
where some central object really comprises the pic¬ 
ture. 

A good guide for trimming is the glass form, as 
by its use you can see where to trim to best advan- 

Place the print, with face up, on a clean sheet of 
glass, and on tlie print place the glass form. Press 
down firmly on the form with one hand, and with 
the other cut along each edge of the form with a 
sharp knife. An ordinary pocket knife will answer. 
The knife should be kept well sharpened. 



62 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


A better method is to use any of the reg-ular print 
trimmers as sold by dealers in photo materials. 

TONING, FIXING AND WASHING. 

When the prints are taken from the frame, they are 
of a bright red color, not altogether a displeasing hue, 
if it could be retained, but it cannot, ror the effect 
of the necessary fixing-bath is to transform it into 
a horrible, bilious brown. In order to avoid this 
objectionable state of affairs, recourse is had to what 
is called the “toning bath,” a very dilute solution 
of chloride of gold, in which the prints are placed, 
whose effect is to throw down on all those portraits 
of the print in which there is already a deposit of 
metallic silver, a thin film of metallic gold, which im¬ 
parts to it the proper tone. 

As the toning operation is a somewhat tedious one, 
giving very nearly as much trouble where only two 
prints are concerned as for two dozen, it is politic 
to postpone it until there are a sufficient number of 
, photographs to be toned to make it worth while. 
Albeit, the treattnent should not be put off for too 
long, as the prints deteriorate with the lapse of time. 
A week or so, however, will have no appreciable de¬ 
terrent effect if prints are kept in an absolutely dark 
receptacle. 

As before stated, the formulae and treatment re¬ 
commended by the manufacturer—who, it is only 
natural to suppose, knows more about the peculiari¬ 
ties of his own products than any one else—should be 
strictly adhered to. In the sheet of instructions issued 
with every paclcet of paper there is given an ex¬ 
tremely simple and excellent recipe for a toning-bath, 
although it is generally pointed out that any of the 
recognized formulae for this class of paper may be 
used. 

Chloride of gold is a component part of nearly all 
toning-baths and it is advisable for the amateur to 
have alw'ays prepared a quantity of gold solution, 
ready for immediate use. 

This chemical (chloride of gold) being a very 
precious salt, and, moreover, being deliquescent, that 
is, liable to take up moisture from*the air and be¬ 
come liquid, is sold for photographic purposes in tiny, 
hermetically sealed tubes holding 15 grains apiece. 
This small quantity of the tiny crystals being prac¬ 
tically unweighable by ordinary mortals, it will be 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


63 


found convenient to mix it with water, which can 
then be conveniently measured. Procure a 16-ounce 
stoppered bottle, put 15 ounces of water in it, together 
with the tube of gold, from which the label must be 
previously washed with warm water, then insert the 
stopper and shake the bottle until the tube breaks. 
You will then have a solution of gold chloride in 
which every ounce contains one grain of the precious 
chemical, which can be easily measured out into the 
required quantities by means of a graduated glass. 

Piaving thus prepared his gold solution, the amateur 
is ready to make up his toning-bath according to the 
special instructions accompanying the particular 
bxand of paper he is using. 

All photographic chemicals may be very much de¬ 
teriorated by accidental admixture with foreign sub¬ 
stances, but none are so sensitive to con,.aminaticn 
as the toning-bath. A separate dish should be re¬ 
served for toning, and never on any account used for 
anything else. Successful toning can only be ac¬ 
complished by observing the greatest cleanliness in all 
the operations and all the materials and vessels used, 
for the smallest quantity of hypo, for instance, will 
have a very detrimental effect upon the results. 

Having mixed up the toning-bath, put it aside while 
you give the prints their preliminary washing. Place 
them one by one, taking care that each is submerg.d 
before the next is put in, into a large basin full of 
clean, cold water, and, as soon as all are in, transfer 
them one at a time to another similar bath of water, 
and then again to the third, and so on until all have 
been washed in several changes of water for at least 
ten minutes. 

When the prints are ready for toning, they should 
be removed from the washing water, for too much 
soaking is not good for them, and put in a heap 
drain. Then one at a time, they are placed in the 
toning-bath, and kept moving about in the solution 
until there are about a dozen under treatment. This 
is about as many as can comfortably be attended to, 
and by this time the first ones should be nearly toned. 
As soon as this stage is reached the print should be 
transferred to another dish of clean, cold water, to 
stop further action, and a fresh one can be put into 
the toning-bath to take its place. Meanwhile all the 
prints in the toning solution must be kept in constant 
motion to avoid unequal action from which patchy 
pictures would result: the best plan is to keep contin- 



64 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


ually drawing the bottom print out of the liquid and 
placing it on the top, taking each one from the bath 
as it is seen to be finished, and replacing it with a 
fresh one from the heap. 

When all the prints have been through this opera¬ 
tion the fixing bath should be prepared. The fixing 
bath is much weaker than that used for negative 
work, and should always be freshly mixed for each 
batch of prints. The following strength is recom¬ 
mended, though the proportions need not be very 
exactly measured: 

Hyposulphicv of soda. 3 ozs. 

Water .20 ozs. 



Fig. 20, Print washer. Connected to house-tap by 
rubber tube. Washes a number of prints at the 
same time. 

Ten minutes will suffice to complete the operation 
and again care should be taken to prevent the prints 
sticking too closely to one another and so interfere 
with the action of the hypo. The final washing, whose 
duty, as in the case of the negatives, is to remove 
all trace of the hypo and which must, therefore, be 
most thoroughly performed, for upon its thoroughness 
the permanency of the prints almost entirely depends, 
takes at least fifty minutes, and is best accomplished 
in a print-washer in running w'ater, if possible, or, 
failing that, in continual changes, one print at a time. 





GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


65 


MOUNTING. 

After the prints are v/ashed they are ready for 
mounting- on cardboard, or as usually called, card- 
mounts; this operation is very simple. 

Remove the prints from the -water one by one, drain 
off all surplus -water, and place in a pile, with faces 
down, on a clean sheet of glass. 

Apply a thin coat of paste to the back of upper 
print, using a bristle brush for that purpose; place th3 
print carefully on the card-mount, working from the 
center to the ends so as to be free from air bubbles. 
Place a piece of cheese cloth over the print to prevent 
it from becoming rubbed or torn, and rub the paper 
■wdth the palm of the hand until the print lies per¬ 
fectly smooth. 

If the prints are not required to be mounted at once 
on leaving the water, they should be dried, and when 
mounted subsequently, they should be thrown into 
clean water until they lie flat, and then mount as 
usual. Do not try to mount them while dry. 

One of the best articles for making prints lie smooth 
is a small squeegee roller, which are sold by all 
dealers in photographic materials. 

GLACE FINISH. 

If you w’ant to mount aristotype prints, a very 
high polish may be given them by laying them face 
down on a sheet of ferrotype plate and rub lightly 
until it lays perfectly flat against the plate. When 
perfectly dry the print can be removed, when it will 
have a high glace flnish. 

A mat surface may be obtained by substituting a 
sheet of ground glass for the ferrotype plate, 

BROMIDE PRINTING. 

All methods of printing—and their name is legion- 
are not confined to the printing-out process. An ordi¬ 
nary photographic dry plate, coated with its bro¬ 
mide of silver emulsion, would, with very short ex¬ 
posure, form a printing material, and a similar emul¬ 
sion of a slower nature coated upon paper instead of 
glass gives us the printing surface known as Bromide 
paper. With such paper, of cour.ce, printing is ac¬ 
complished with a very short exposure indeed, fol¬ 
lowed by development, but no toning. The work can 
all be done in an evening by artificial light, which is 



66 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


often a great advantage to the amateur who likes to 
devote all the daylight hours at his disposal to the 
making of negatives which cannot be done at any 
other time. A bromide print is a study in black and 
white, and it is very greatly preferred on this account 
by many people to the warmer-hued pictures on 
chloride paper. That, of course, is purely a matter 
of taste, and the choice of a printing process must 
depend upon the particular predilections of the printer, 
when no other factors have to be taken into consid¬ 
eration. But bromide paper does not do justice to 
the majority of small negatives. It is very well in 
those of a larger grov th, where a certain amount of 
depth of treatment, as the artists call it, does not 
involve a loss of more essvcntial qualities, but for very 
smlal pictures, the lack of brilliancy, which is insep¬ 
arable from this method of printing, and the loss or 
rather suppression, of detail which it involves makes 
it not to be recommended for the greater quantity of 
subjects. 

Some pictures there are which are greatly improved 
by being printed in this manner, lor they neither 
contain nor require much wealth of detail. It is one 
of the things which the photographer will realize 
as he gets more familiar with his art, that the choice 
of a printing medium must depend entirely upon the 
nature of the picture which it is to bear, for it will 
very greatly affect its quality and artistic value. 

It will not be necessary to go very extensively into 
the details of this process, for the photographer is 
already well acquainted with the treatment of dry 
plates and the paper merely requires humoring in a. 
very similar manner. Attention must be paid to the 
different requirements of a positive as compared with 
a negative, and great care must be taken to prevent 
the paper from becoming at all foggvd, either by 
stray light or any other cause, but as bromide paper 
'iS coated with a much less sensitive emulsion than 
that used for plates—except where a specially rapid 
variety is required for enlarging, as will be explained 
in the next chapter—there is but little aifflculty in 
fulfilling this condition. It is in the development that 
the chief difference lies between the treatment of the 
paper and the plates, for a different kind of result 
is expected of it. In negative work it does not matter 
if the brightest portions are a little veiled—indeed, 
they generally are—it merel 5 increases the time re¬ 
quired in the subsequent printing to a slight extent, 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


67 


which is a matter of no moment. But in a print the 
high lights must be absolutely white, a condition 
which could scarcely be fulfilled by any of the reduc¬ 
ing agents in common use for negative work. 

Owing to this requirement the choice of developers 
is somewhat limited. It will suffice here to describe 
the one which is generally recognized as the best for 
the purpose. It is in two solutions, as follows: 

NO. I. 


Neutral oxalate of potash. 1 lb. av. 

Bromide of ammonium.20 grains 

Water (warm) .64 ozs. 


NO. II. 


Sulphate of iron . 1 lb. av. 

Sulphuric acid . 1 drachm 

Water (warm) .48 ozs. 


Both solutions should be filtered, and will be ready 
for use when cold. For use, add one ounce of No. II. 
to six ounces of No. I., but not vice versa, or a heavy 
yellow precipitate will be thrown down, and the solu¬ 
tion be quite unfit for use. The developer when mixed 
should be of a brilliant red color, like so much red 
ink, and as clear as crystal, or it is not in good condi¬ 
tion. Both ingredients, when separate, are colorless. 

The paper is exposed behind a negative in a printing 
frame to the action of the light of an ordinary gas 
flame, for a few seconds, the length of time required 
depending upon the distance and the brilliancy of the 
source of light, the density of the negative, and the 
rapidity of the particular brand of paper used. As a 
rough idea, ten seconds may be quoted for slow bro¬ 
mide paper, a negative of average density—which is 
necessarily a vague definition—and a gas burner at 
a distance of about eighteen inches. Rapid bromide 
paper is usually about five or six times as quick as 
the slow. The same remarks anent long exposures 
with a poor light, and vice versa, which were made 
in connection with printing out paper, apply equally 
here, but it must be remembered that the law of 
inverse squares has to be taken into consideration. 
If you doubt the distance of the source of light, you 
must quadruple the length of exposure, multiply the 
distance by three, and the exposure time must be 
ninefold. You will in each case be giving an exposure 
of equivalent value, but with the longest time and 










68 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


the poorest light you will produce the brightest and 
most plucky points. Bromide printing is in any case 
inclined to yield results in which there is a tendency 
to higher contrasts than a chloride print would show, 
so that with fairly bright negatives a short exposure 
close up to the light is the thing to be generally 
aimed for. 

Place the exposed print straight into the developing 
solution without any previous rinsing, and keep it 
there until the image with all its details appears fully 
out, but do not continue the operation long enough 
for the high lights to become at all degraded. When 
the development is judged to be complete, transfer 
the print, again without any washing, to a clearing 
bath made up by adding half an ounce of acetic acid 
to eighty ounces of water. It should remain in this 
bath—whose function is to dissolve out the lingering 
developer, w'hich, if allowed to come in contact wdth 
plain water, would deposit an insoluble yellow precip¬ 
itate in the thickness of the film—for three or four 
minutes, and then, after a thorough washing to re¬ 
move all traces of the acid, it is ready for fixing. 
The hypo should be freshly mixed for each batch of 
prints and should be of the strength of one pound to 
two quarts of w'ater, in which bath fifteen minutes’ 
soaking will be sufficient to insure perfect fixation. 
The washing and drying operations are the same a.s. 
in the case of gelatino-chloride prints, and mounting 
may also be accomplished in a similar manner. 

Bromide paper is made in several varieties, such as 
rough slow, rough rapid, smooth slow, smooth rapid, 
etc. The choice between the rough and the smooth¬ 
surfaced papers should be decided by the nature of 
the subject to be printed thereon. For negatives with 
plenty of fine detail, a smooth paper is to be pre¬ 
ferred. 

PLATINUM PRINTING. 

So far all the printing methods that have been 
described depend upon the fact that certain of the 
salts of silver are sensitive to light; that is to say, 
they are either directly darkened by the action of 
light, or they have conferred upon them the suscep¬ 
tibility of the blackening influence of a subsequent. 
chemical operation called development. But one of 
the most beautiful of all the printing processes at 
.the command of the amateur is that in which the 
chemical salt of the metal platinum is substituted for 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


69 


that of silver, and so pleasing are the prints made 
by this process that it has come to be recognized even 
by the lay mind as something distinct from the usual 
run of photography, and “platinotypes” come in for 
a large share of admiration everywhere. 

Platinotype paper can be obtained from most deal¬ 
ers, together with all the accessories required in the 
working of the process. It cannot be described as a 
printing out paper, nor is it of a very similar nature 
to those developing papers which have been described. 
It requires a long exposure to daylight, though not so 
long as that necessary for the, gelatine and other 
printing out papers, and after that it has to be 
developed. But it must not be supposed that the pro¬ 
cess is a complicated one to work. On the contrary, 
there are few simpler in the whole range of print¬ 
ing processes known to photographic men, for there 
is no toning to be looked after, a little very dilute 
acid answers for the fixing, and there is only one 
w’ashing and that takes but a quarter of an hour in 
running water. 

Platinotype printing presents no special difficulties 
when once its little peculiarities are understood, but 
there is one thing about it which demands most 
careful attention, for upon that depends in a very 
great measure the success or failure of the process. 
The sensitive paper,- both before and during printing, 
is most susceptible to the influence of damp, whicn, 
if it has been allowed to affect the paper, will inevi¬ 
tably cause it to yield muddy and degraded-looking 
prints which are “flat, stale and unprofitable.’’ The 
paper as supplied by the makers is properly packed in 
air-tight receptacles, in which it will keep for years, 
if necessary, without coming to any harm, provided 
the container has never been opened. But as soon 
as the paper contained is begun to be used, a different 
kind of receptacle is necessary, in which to keep the 
remainder out of harm’s way. The special receptacle 
w^hich has been designed for the purpose is called 
a “calcium tube,’’ for, in its construction, the well- 
known eager affinity which quick-lime has for mois¬ 
ture is called into requisition in order to suck up any 
trace of damp from the air in the tube, around w'hose 
joint also a thick rubber band is placed to prevent 
fresh moisture from entering:. As a further precaut on 
against the same evil-working influence, it is neces¬ 
sary to place between the pads of the printing frame 
and the sensitive paper during exposure, a sheet of 




70 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


thin vulcanized India rubber, and it is most important 
that the pads themselves should be perfectly dry. 
Indeed, that word “dry” is the key-note of the whole 
thing, every part of the apparatus used and every 
bit of paper right up to the process of development, 
must be thoroughly dry if the best results are to be 
secured. 

The only difficulty about the process is as regards 
the exposure, for not being, strictly speaking, a 
printing out paper, a certain amount of experience 
and skill is necessary in order to judge when the 
operation is complete. It is not so much a case of 
estimating beforehand the length of exposure neces¬ 
sary, as, for instance, where bromide paper and other 
processes of printing by development are concerned, 
for, after the light has done its work, there is a 
distinct image of the picture upon the paper, from 
which an experienced printer can tell in a moment 
whether the operation has been carried sufficiently 
far or not. It is much more nearly allied to the use 
of printing out paper, for an ordinary printing frame 
with its hinged back is employed, and tne length of 
time required is determined, not by previous calcula¬ 
tion, but by examining the progres.«i of the print from 
time to time during exposure. 

The paper, when first taken from its tin case, is of 
a pale canary yellow color, which, by exposure to 
light, becomes modified into a light greyish brown. 

Till about three or four years ago it was customary 
to* develop platinotype prints in a hot bath or oxalate 
of potash—which, it will be remembered, is one of 
the constituents of a developer recommended for use 
with bromide paper—but about that time what is 
known as the cold-bath process w'as introduced, with 
the result of very greatly simplifying the operations 
necessary in this method of printing. The developer 
now used consists merely of the usual oxalate of 
potash solution, such as that of w^hich the ferrous- 
oxalate developer is chiefly composed, mixed with 
twice its bulk of water. The formula stands thus 
(for the bromide of ammonium is not required): 
Oxalate of potash solution, normal 
strength, i. e., 1 lb., dissolved in 50 oz. 

water . 1 part 

Water . 2 parts 

The makers usually recommend a special substance 
which they call by various names for the development 
of their papers. But as the treatment of the prints 





GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


71 


where this developer is used differs in no essential 
way from the other case, it will be unnecessary to 
further mention same. 

Care should be taken with the prints in all the 
stages prior to development that they do not become 
unduly exposed to light, for its action upon the paper 
does not manifest itself until afterwards. Remember, 
it is more sensitive than any of the printing out pa¬ 
pers, and must be guarded accordingly. When first 
taken from the frames, unless the prints are destined 
for immediate development, they should be quickly 
placed in the calcium tube to protect them from the 
action of the damp air. Then, when the time comes to 
develop them, they are floated one by one, face down¬ 
wards, on the surface of the solution, and the opera¬ 
tion takes thirty seconds or possibly more. There is 
another method of development which has great artis¬ 
tic possibilities in clever hands, and that is by apply¬ 
ing the solution, re-strained with glycerine in order 
to make it slower in its action, by means of a camel’s 
hair brush. Very beautiful effects can be gained by 
this method, especially if advantage is taken of the 
restraining power of pure glycerine to hold back those 
portions of the picture which are not required of such 
depth as the remainder. 

The color of a platinum print is essentially black, 
but this tone can be modified to a small extent by 
making the developer very slightly alkaline for a 
warm black, or acid when cold tones are desired. 

As soon as development is complete, the print is 
transferred to a fixing bath composed of: 


Hydrochloric acid (pure) . 1 part 

Water .60 parts 


Immerse the print face downwards in this bath con¬ 
tained in a porcelain dish, and leave it there for five 
minutes or so, or until all the prints of the batch 
have been developed and placed in this clearing, or 
fixing bath. Then, when the last one has had its five 
minutes’ soak, they are all transferred to a second, 
precisely similar, bath, where they must remain for, 
say, ten minutes, when they are again transferred to 
a third bath, compounded in exactly the same manner, 
and there left for a quarter of an hour. This triple 
clearing is followed by a good washing in three 
changes of water—to the second of which a little 
w^ashing soda may be added to neutralize any acid 
^remaining in the prints—and after fifteen minutes or 
so, they are ready for drying. 





72 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


PRINTING-IN CLOUDS. 

The time is past and gone when a landscape photo¬ 
graph having a plain white sky is considered com¬ 
plete. It has been recognized that a photograph, like 
any other picture, must show clouds of some sort, 
if it has any sky at all, and, as clouds—requiring a 
very much shorter exposure than the majority of 
terrestrial objects—rarely appear upon a landscape 
negative, it is necessary to introduce them into the 
print by a second exposure to light under a special 
cloud negative. The amateur will do well to make 
for himself a set of negatives of different kinds of 
clouds so that Lb will have a number to select from, 
and will be able to find one to suit any picture he may 
take. Attention should be paid to the direction of 
lighting of the clouds, so that a landscape lighted 
from one side may not be wedded to a cloud on which 
the sun is shining from the opposite direction. 

The recently introduced Ray Filters and Ray Filter- 
graphs render the making of cloud negatives compara¬ 
tively easy, as they are constructed primarily for this 
W'ork. 

If the blaek space representing the sky on the land¬ 
scape negative be not sufficiently dense to prevent the 
light from darkening the paper behind during prim¬ 
ing, it must be painted out or masked to make it so, 
and this is most easily done in the following manner: 
Make a rough print upon any kind of printing-out 
paper and, with a pair of scissors, cut carefully along 
the line of demarkation between the landscape and 
the sky portion. Put both pieces in the sunlight to 
darken, and attach the sky half to the glass side of 
the negative in the right position to make the sky per¬ 
fectly opaque, taking care that it does not overlap 
other portions of the picture. Then make the print in 
the usual manner, and afterwards print in the sky 
from a suitable cloud negative, using the other half of 
the divided photograph as a shield for the landscape 
portion already printed, in the same manner. 

VIGNETTING. 

Portraits are sometimes printed in such a manner 
that the picture gradually fades away towards the 
edges where there is perfectly white paper. This 
“artful fakement’’ is called vignetting, and is accom¬ 
plished, as will be imagined, by shielding the edges 
during exposure or printing by means of a suitable 



•GUIPE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


73 


mask. Vignetters, as they are called, can be purchased 
troni any dealer in photographic accessories, but as 
nearly every different picture or portrait requires a 
mask of different shape or size, it is less expensive for 
the amateur to make his own vignetting shapes as he 
requires them. Take a piece of card of the size of the 
negative to be vignetted, and cut a hole in it of oval 
or other shape, as the case may be, and rather smaller 
than that area of the picture which is to be unaffected 
by the shielding. Then with a pair of scissors snip out 
V-shaped pieces so that the hole is serrated all around 
inside like the edge of a saw. Place this card in the 
printing frame before you put the negative in, and 
bulge it out so that the teeth stand out in front of the 
glass to the extent of about half an inch. Then print 
in the ordinary manner, but in well diffused light, and 
the result should be a nicely graduated vignette with¬ 
out a trace of the serrated edges being apparent. 

FRAMING. 

In choosing a frame for a print—and the same thing 
applies to the mounts with deep margins which are so 
deservedly popular—great attention should be paid to 
the two chief things which have to be considered, 
namely, the particular character of the picture to be 
framed, for a very great deal depends upon the suit¬ 
ability of its surroundings, and the coloring and gen¬ 
eral nature of the wall upon which the frame is to be 
hung. This last is an item which seldom gets the 
consideration which it deserves. The beauty of a pho¬ 
tograph is very much enhanced if it is surrounded 
with such colors as will suit its particular character¬ 
istics and hue. This is not the place to enter into a 
discursive consideration of what must, of necessity, be 
largely a matter of taste; it will be sufficient to point 
out that a photograph should never be permanently 
consigned to a frame without due consideration being 
given to the place and manner in which it is ulti¬ 
mately destined to be hung. 

As regards the frame itself, in its relation to the 
picture, it is difficult to lay down any general rules as 
to its choice, but it will be safe to say that the mount 
and frame should both be chosen with a view to 
heightening the effectiveness of the picture they are 
to contain and of lending importance and dignity to its 
salient features. For instance, if the picture contains 
high lights which require accentuating, a heavy mass 
of black in the framing—if it be not included in the 




74 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. ' 


picture itself—will be found to lend vigor and bril¬ 
liancy. 

Where the photographs are arranged in albums, the 
same variety of choice environment is not permissible, 
but even here there is scope for the exercise of the 
photographer’s good taste, for much may be accom¬ 
plished in a negative kind of way, by the careful 
choice of neighbors, so that incongruity of fellow¬ 
ship—whereby the effectiveness of a picture is often 
entirely nullified—may be avoided, and its telling qual¬ 
ities considerably enhanced by placing it among others 
whose particular qualities may act as a foil to its 
beauty. 

Very convenient albums known as squeegees have 
lately been introduced, in which unmounted photo¬ 
graphs may be inserted into the thickness of the 
pages, as it were, in much the same manner as 
cartes-de-visite and cabinets are slipped in the old- 
fashioned portrait albums. Photographic mounts, 
either plain or ornamented with seasonable legendary 
inscrptions, suitable to Christmas time, etc., built 
upon the same principle, can also be obtained.’ 



CHAPTER V. 


HOW TO MAKE ENLARGEMENTS. 

ENLARGING BY DAYLIGHT. 

It could hardly be an exaggeration to say that three- 
quarters of all the photographs taken by the ama¬ 
teurs of the world are, owing to the very great popu¬ 
larity of the hand camera, of the size known as 4x5. 
It is not only the hand camera that is responsible for 
this state of things, for even with the more important¬ 
looking apparatus on three legs it is often of very 
great advantage to the traveling amateur to carry 
about with him plates of the smallest convenient size, 
for not only is there by so doing a considerable saving 
of expense and bulk, in the matter of plates alone, but 
the size of camera, dishes and all the rest of the para¬ 
phernalia has to be taken into the question. But 4x5 
prints are small and generally fail to satisfy the am¬ 
bitious cravings of the photographer, so the question 
presents itself for solution whether it would be better 
to go in for larger apparatus and face the difficulties 
of weight and bulk and expense, or take arms against 
the sea of troubles and, by enlarging, end them. 

The enlarging method has many very great advan¬ 
tages. Not only does it admit of carrying smaller 
equipments, which usually means that the photog¬ 
rapher will be enabled to travel farther afield, but the 
small negatives which he produces are available for 
enlargement to any reasonable size and dimensions, 
so that he is not confined to one size of picture, or 
they may be printed directly in the form of lantern 
slides, which is a most delightful end to their career. 
Moreover, the most perfect photographer, even if he 
work with plates measuring a couple of feet across, 
rarely produces more than one or two pictures out of 
a dozen attempts which are worth framing. See what 
a waste of material and labor there is about those 
ten or eleven immense failures! for the experientia 
which docet might be just as well extracted from 4x5 
plates, when their failure to come quite up to the 
scratch would be far less distressing. But when the 


76 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


small plate user, who has naturally been free to make 
a far greater number of attempts, succeeds in pro¬ 
ducing a picture which is really worthy of the honor, 
he will have very little trouble in enlarging it to al¬ 
most anj size he may wish for. 



Fig. 30. Combination Enlarging, Reducing and Copy¬ 
ing Camera. 

I have described the use of what is familiarly known 
as bromide paper—paper which is coated with an 
emulsion of bromide of silver and gelatine of the 
same characteristics as that which is used in the 
manufacture ,of dry plates. If a sheet of such pre¬ 
pared paper be attached to an easel, and a negative 
image be projected upon it, such as would be thrown 
by a magic lantern in which a photographic negative 
was placed instead of the ordinary lantern slide, a 
picture will be produced upon development which is a 
perfect counterpart on a larger scale of what a print 
direct from that negative would have been. The re¬ 
sult will be—except for a slight woolliness in the finer 
details, which is unavoidable, but very seldom dis¬ 
agreeable—in every way as perfect as a contact print 
upon bromide paper direct from a large negative 
•would have been. And although for small work, such 
as 4x5 photography, bromide paper does not do justice 
to the capabilities of the negative, unless it is re¬ 
markably deficient in detail, it is, where larger work 
is concerned, often more likely to give satisfactory 
results than the slower printing-out paper. 

An enlarging lantern, properly so called, is not a 
necessity for this work, except where tiie amateur is 
so placed that he is obliged to depend upon artificial 
light, for during daylight hours he is otherwise en¬ 
gaged—which is rather a paradoxical position for a 

























GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


77 


photographer to be placed in. The alternative method 
is to use the camera and lens with which the negative 
was originally taken to project its enlarged image 
upon the sheet of bromide paper bv means of daylight 
The way in which this is done can be plainly seen by 
reference to the accompanying diagram. The camera 



Fig. 31. Showing arrangement for enlarging w'ith an 
ordinary camera by daylight. 

is here shown supported on a table or folding flap just 
in front of a window which is blocked up with a 
wooden shutter so that no extraneous light can enter 
the room. Exactly behind the back of the camera a 
.square or oblong hole is cut in the shutter, a little 
larger than the negative to be enlarged, and behind 
this hole—there should be no glass to the window—an 
inclined mirror is placed, of sufficient size and tilted 
to such an angle that, on placing the eye in the posi¬ 
tion occupied by the lens of the camera, a clear and 
uninterrupted view of the open sky can be obtained 








































78 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


through any portion of the negative.. Should this, 
owing to force of circumstances and the position of 
the room chosen for the enlarging operations, he im¬ 
possible, and trees or other undesirable objects will 
insist upon intruding themselves into the field of view, 
a sheet of ground glass may be placed an inch or two 
behind the negative—but not too near, or its grain will 
appear in the enlargement. This, however, will have 
the effect, while it equalizes the illiimination, of cut¬ 
ting off a quantity of the light so that a longer ex¬ 
posure will be necessary, and there is an alternative 
method which is open to the same objection, in which 
the mirror is replaced by a dead white surface, such 
as a sheet of white card or a whitewashed board, with 
which, of course, the ground glass will be unneces¬ 
sary. 

With this arrangement, the negative to be enlarged 
is to be placed in the plate-holder, from which the 
middle partition has been removed, precisely as if it 
were a plate on which a photograph were to be taken, 
with its film side towards the lens. This holder is then 
fitted into position in the camera, and both slides 
drawn so that the light has free passage right through 
the negative from the refiector outside the window to 
the lens by which the image of the negative will be 
thrown on to the white screen placed on the easel to 
receive it. Then the focussing cloth should be care¬ 
fully draped around the back part of the camera, so 
as to exclude all stray light which might leak through 
any space which existed between the opening in the 
shutter and the plate-holder containing the negative, 
for the room in which the enlargements are made 
must be just as carefully guarded from the access of 
harmful light as an ordinary photographic dark-room. 

A square should be drawn upon the paper screen on 
which the image is to be focussed, to mark the place 
where the sensitive paper will afterwards come. The 
focussing is accomplished as accurately as possible by 
varying the distance between the lens and the nega¬ 
tive in the camera in the usual way, and the size of 
the ultimate picture, of course, depends upon the dis¬ 
tance of the screen from the camera. When all the 
adjustments are satisfactorily made, a trial exposure 
should be ventured by pinning a narrow strip of bro¬ 
mide paper upon the easel in such a position that it 
will cross the most salient portions of the picture. 
For daylight enlarging, where it is always advisable 
to use a small stop in the lens so as to improve the 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


79 


definition, the quick variety ot bromide paper should 
be used that +he exposure may not be inordinately 
drawn out, but in any case, except for the smallest 
pictures, a long exposure will be required. When its 
length has, as the result of a few of these trial trips, 
been decided upon, the cap is placed on the lens and 
the sheet of bromide paper pinned in position. As a 
help in getting the paper in the right place, a lens 
cap, which, instead of being opaque, is fitted with a 
little window of yellow glass, will be found very ad¬ 
vantageous, for it will allow sufficient non-actinic light 
to pass to show the outlines of the picture. After ex¬ 
posure, development, clearing and fixing follow ex¬ 
actly the same, except that in this case the paper 
being more sensitive to light than that used for con¬ 
tact w'ork, greater Care must be taken in all the dark¬ 
room manipulation that its whites do not become de¬ 
graded by extraneous light. 

ENLARGING BY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 

But all amateurs cannot afford to devote daylight 
hours to the making of enlargements, and some are so 
placed that it is not convenient to knock holes in the 
window shutters, and various other objections may 
occasionally arise to render this method of enlarging a 
scarcely desirable one, and to cause a good means of 
enlarging by artificial light to be regarded as a con¬ 
summation devoutly to be wished. 

Either an ordinary magic, or, as it is now called, 
“optical,” lantern, or, better still, one specially built 
with this object in view, will be necessary; and, if one 
has to be bought, the amateur will do well to procure 
one of those instruments which are made primarily for 
enlarging work with the secondary objec. of exh b t ng 
ordinary lantern slides when required. 

Such lanterns can be had fitted either with a good 
kerosene lamp, or with the much mofe perfect lime¬ 
light. Incandescent gas light, too, is much recom¬ 
mended for the purpose, and some are loud in their 
praises of the newly-introduced acetylene gas, which 
as now produced and used by means of the modern 
acetylene generator and burner bids fair to oust all 
competitors from the field, except lime-light and elec¬ 
tricity. The qualifications “of an illuminant for lantern 
work—and, therefore, for,enlarging with a lantern—are 
brilliancy and smallness of light source. The latter is a 
necessity, because a large source of light involves the 
use of a lens of large aperture, and that means poor 



80 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


definition, for owing to the peculiar nature of the opti¬ 
cal system the lens must on no account be stopped 
down. But where the length of time occupied in expos¬ 
ure is not a matter of grave consideration, there is a 
method by which this difficulty may be overcome, and 
the lens stopped down to any desired extent. 

Place in the lantern just behind the condenser—the 
large lens wffiich is between the light and the slide—a 
sheet of fine ground glass. This will diffuse and 
soften the light before it reaches the negative and 
will, without any reduction in the size of the lens 
aperture, yield a much more satisfactory and pleasing 
picture, though it will increase the exposure necessary 
many times. And this arrangement will also permit of 
a smaller stop being used, so that greatly improved 
definition is obtainable, the exposure, of course, fol¬ 
lowing the usual law as regards the size of the aper¬ 
ture. It will be found that with the ordinary optical 
lantern system as used for enlarging by artificial light 
there is a tendency to greatly exaggerate all the little 
defects which are apparent on most negatives, but 
with this ground glass method which I have suggest¬ 
ed, the liability of these defects to show up on a 
greatly increased scale in the resultant picture is con¬ 
siderably reduced, and is of no greater consequence 
than in the case of daylight enlarging. 

HOW TO MAKE AN ENEARGED NEGATIVE. 

There is one other chief means by which the user of 
a small camera can gratify his natural desire to turn 
out large pictures, and that is by making an enlarged 
negative and printing his picture direct from it by 
contact, by any of the printing methods already de¬ 
scribed. As may be supposed, the making of an en¬ 
larged negative is a very similar operation to the pro¬ 
ducing of an enlarged positive, the chief difference be¬ 
ing that a large sheet of glass has to be handled in¬ 
stead of a piece of'paper. 

The number of operations to be gone through is 
doubled, for two negatives and two positives have to 
be made before the photograph is finished. However, 
it is not feasible to make a direct photographic en¬ 
largement on platinotype paper, for instance, or any 
of the printing-out papers, and therefore it occa¬ 
sionally happens that an enlarged negative is a neces¬ 
sity. 

The first thing to be done is to make by contact a 
really good positive print on glass—a transparency 




GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


81 


which, like a good negative, has that due proportion 
of detail to density, not too much or too little of either 
one or the other, which is called good printing qual¬ 
ity. It is not necessary to enter into details as to how 
this is accomplished; suffice it to say that it will be 
better to employ a glass plate specially prepared for 
positive transparency work, such as a lantern plate, 
for instance, and to use one of the developers recom¬ 
mended for positives rather than for negatives. The 
ferrous oxalate developer, of which the formula was 
given in connection with bromide paper, will be found 
to yield excellent transparencies if the instructions as 
to clearing, etc., be carefully carried out. It should 
be used in a stronger form than that recommended 
for the bromide paper, say one part of the iron solu¬ 
tion to four, or even less, of the oxalate, the former 
being, of course, poured into the latter and not in the 
opposite order. Or the hydroquinone developer, of 
which a formula will be issued by the makers of the 
plates, may he used with results that cannot be 
beaten. 

The sensitive glass plate upon which the enlarged 
negative is to be taken may also with advantage be 
of the lantern plate variety, though in this case it may 
be developed with pyro or any other reducing agent 
which may happen to be the particular favorite of the 
photographer, provided always that it is suitable to 
the peculiarities of the plate used. The plate’is at¬ 
tached to the easel just as it would be if it were bro¬ 
mide paper, except that the drawing pins being in¬ 
admissible, some other method of fastening must be 
adopted. A very good plan is to drive three wire 
nails into the woodwork of the easel, two of them on 
a line with one another and sloping slightly upwards, 
while the third is considerably higher up on, say, the 
right-hand side, v/ith its head inclined towards the 
left. The lower edge of the plate rests on the two 
lower nails and is pushed up against the remaining 
one so that it is prevented from falling forward. With 
regard to the exposure, some idea of its length will 
have been gained from previous experience with bro¬ 
mide paper, but a preliminary experiment or two 
should be made on a smaller plate of the same make, 
for these large ones are expensive and should be 
economized. 

Development is conducted in a precisely similar 
manner as in the case of an original negative, having 
regard to the particular printing process for which it 



82 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


is destined. Thus, for platinum paper it should not be 
at all yellow and need not be of quite so plucky a 
character as if it is required for printing upon Print¬ 
ing Out Paper or other similarly constituted medium. 

GENERAL REMARKS ON PHOTOGRAPHIC EN¬ 
LARGING. 

The first thing to be taken into consideration is as 
regards whether what you contemplate enlarging is 
altogether worthy of the treatment. It should possess 
some other distinct merit besides mere technical ex¬ 
cellence, something which shall give it a claim upon 
others besides its producer, some value of association, 
the pictorial record of a holiday, for instance, or it 
may be the portrait of a friend and therefore valu¬ 
able for that friend’s sake, or, best of all, it may be 
artistic in itself, a thing of beauty, which it is pleas¬ 
ant to look upon and which will be valued for its own 
sake. 

Secondly, there is the consideration, is the negative 
sufficiently perfect, technically, to admit of satisfac¬ 
tory enlargement? Remember, all the tiny flaws, all 
the little scratches, pin-holes and dust marks, even 
those that are invisible as far as the naked eye is 
concerned on the original negative, will be produced 
upon the enlargement with terrible fidelity, and a pho¬ 
tograph which is capable of producing a passably sat¬ 
isfactory print may fail utterly in yielding anything 
but an execrable patchwork when subjected to the 
searching process of enlargement. 

It occasionally happens that the pictorial aspects of 
a photograph are very greatly improved by a little 
judicious shielding of one or more portions so that 
other parts are printed more darkly and certain con¬ 
stituents of the picture accentuated. This is easily 
accomplished during the progress of the exposure of 
an enlargement by holding a piece of black card be¬ 
tween the lens and the bromide paper or plate at such 
a distance from the latter that it does not cast a 
sharp shadow, and moving it about over the parts to 
be affected so that there shall not be any distinct out¬ 
line. Of course, considerable taste and no little skill 
are required in this operation in order that the “fak¬ 
ing” may be properly done and done to the right 
extent, or, instead of being improved, the picture will 
probably be ruined. 

In the same manner, when it is desirable to “print- 




GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


83 


in” clouds, the sky portion, instead of being blocked 
out on the negative—always a tiresome progress—may 
be shielded during exposure, and then the cloud nega¬ 
tive, being inserted in the carrier in place of the 
other, a second exposure is made while carefully 
shielding that portion of the sensitive surface which 
has already received the impression of the landscape. 



CHAPTER VI. 


LANTERN SLIDES AND TRANSPARENCY MAK¬ 
ING. 

THE USES OF LANTERN SLIDES AND TRANS¬ 
PARENCIES ON GLASS. 

A large number of printing methods by which the 
amateur can turn his negatives into positive pictures 
have now been treated of, and he should have no diffi¬ 
culty in hitting upon one which will suit his taste. 
But no book on photography, however unpretending, 
would approach anything like completion without due 
attention being paid to transparency work, for that is 
not only one of the most beautiful of the printing pro¬ 
cesses at the amateur’s disposal, but it is one of the 
most useful for various decorative purposes. 

By far the larger number of photographic transpar¬ 
encies take the form of lantern slides, for this repre¬ 
sents a method by which the amateur can exhibit his 
photographs to tne very best advantage, and in such a 
manner that they will be pleasing and interesting to 
all his friends—which cannot alw'ays be said of a set 
of miscellaneous prints. It might seem to the super¬ 
ficial observer that transparencies designed for lan¬ 
tern work and those intended merely for visual pur¬ 
poses, would differ only in point of size and not neces¬ 
sarily in that. But that is not so. There is consider¬ 
able difference in the quality of transparency required 
for the two purposes, and one which w'ould be most 
effective for window decoration, say, would be almost 
useless for lantern work, while a perfect lantern slide 
when held up and examined in the ordinary way, ap¬ 
pears to be very lacking in pluck and vigor and all 
those brilliant qualities which give to photographic 
transparencies their chief charm. 

The reason for this is of course the very different 
conditions under w^hich the tw'o are viewed. In the 
one case, the picture is seen direct by brilliant light 
pouring right through it and going straight to the 
eyes, consequently, considerable density and depth of 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


85 


detail are requisite to give it effect, while in the other, 
the light after passing through the slide, is spread out 
over a large w^hite sheet, and reflected by that into 
the eyes, so that a very slight deposit upon the trans¬ 
parency is sufficient to make a marked difference in 
the amount of the illumination. 

The most desirable qualities in a lantern slide are 
extreme transparency, so that as much light as pos¬ 
sible may be allowed to reach the sheet, consistent 
with a sufficiency of contrast between the lights and 
shades; and good definition, for the slight diffusion 
of focus w'hich is often a distinct artistic gain in the 
ordinary photograph upon paper or other opaque sup¬ 
port, is quite inadmissible in a lantern slide, where 
such a very great magnification v/ould make the lack 
of focus seem abominable. Those faults in a negative 
which, as I have already said in connection with 
photographic enlargement, though almost invisible 
and unnoticeable in a direct paper print by contact, 
show up in a terrible manner when the picture is sub- 
jeted to the tremendous magnification of an optical 
lantern. Therefore, “seeing what small things are 
boisterous there,” for “a grain of dust, a gnat, a 
wandering hair,” will appear respectively like a huge 
boulder, an elephant, and a sea-serpent, it follows 
that only negatives which are technically perfect or 
nearly so, are eligible for the purpose of lantern slide 
making. 

LANTERN SLIDE MAKING BY CONTACT. 

Optically speaking, there are two methods of mak¬ 
ing lantern slides—leaving the chemical part of the 
subject out of the question altogether at present. 
They are called respectively, the contact method and 
the reduction method—terms which will hardly re¬ 
quire an explanation, for to him who has understood 
the preceding pages, they are self-explanatory. Lan¬ 
tern slides by contact can, of course, only be made of 
the same size as the negative from which they are 
printed, that is to say, the objects which are shown 
in the negative will be reproduced in the lantern slide 
of the same size, and if the negative be larger than 
the lantern plate only a certain portion of the picture* 
can be included in the transparency. Lantern slides 
are now always made of one standard size, namely, 
314 x 4 inches, and if that portion of your negative 
which you wish to include in the slide be larger than 



86 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


three inches across your only plan will be to adopt 
the reduction method. 

However, the majority of photographs taken by 
amateurs are of the 4x5-in size, and most of these will 
be of such a character that, by dint of sacrifice half 
an inch from either side—often not a considerable 
loss—they are available for lantern slide purposes 
without further trouble. To make a lantern slide by 
contact upon a dry plate the operations to be gone 
through are almost identical with those necessary in 
printing on bromide paper. Place the negative face 
uppermost in a printing frame—we will suppose that 
it is a 4x5 one, for the sake of argument—and place 
over it, film to film, one of the special lantern plates 
sold by any of the good makers. Hold the frame up 
to the light of your red lamp while selecting the best 
portion of the picture for reproduction, and when the 
lantern plate has been placed in position to your satis¬ 
faction, fasten in the back and expose to gaslight just 
as you would if it were a print upon bromide paper 
that you were making. 

If certain portions of the picture require shielding 
during exposure— and as you will probably have had 
previous experience with the same negative, you will 
know pretty well what special treatment it wants— 
this must be accomplished in the manner which has 
been already explained. And as in the case of bro¬ 
mide paper the character of the results upon lan¬ 
tern plates can be very considerably modified by vary¬ 
ing the conditions under which exposure is made, a 
long exposure to* a poor light tending to high con¬ 
trasts or harshness, while an equivalent exposure 
under the opposite conditions tends to softness or lack 
of brilliancy. 

LANTERN SLIDE MAKING BY REDUCTION- 

DAYLIGHT. 

But the lantern picture-maker will probably soon 
find that he is considerably hampered by this neces¬ 
sity to reproduce his negatives in facsimile as re¬ 
gards size, for he will constantly find that he is 
obleged to cut out portions that are really valuable 
as pictorial constituents, and that many of his best 
views are ruined by the limitation of the process. 
For even 4x5 negatives are not always amenable to 
being ruthlessly cut off to the square of their smaller 
diameter, though they have been specially taken with 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


87 


a view to be ultimately made into lantern slides, 
while those ot a larger growth yield themselves up to 
the treatment less and less, in proportion to their size. 
So that if much lantern -slide work has to be done, 
some method of reducing the picture to the standard 
size soon becomes more or less of a necessity. 

Again, the subject is divisible into two principal 
methods of procedure, which, as in the case of en¬ 
largements already treated of, come under the heads 
of Daylight and Artificial light. We will take them 
in the order named. If the reader will refer to a dia¬ 
gram which I gave in connection with the subject of 
enlargement upon bromide paper (see Chapter V.), 
he will see for that w'ork the light of the sky is re¬ 
flected by means of a mirror or a suitable substitute 
through a nole in the shutter of a darkened room, 
thence through the negative from which the picture 
is to be made, and afterwards through an ordinary 
photographic lens by which the image is projected 
upon the sensitive surface placed to receiv'e it. The 
size of the resulting picture depends upon the distance 
of that sensitive surface from the optical system. 
Now suppose that the sensitive film be moved so close 
up to the lens that the image of the negative, instead 
of being enlarged is actually reduced in size, and 
that the bromide paper is replaced by a lantern plate. 
Then you have all the elements for a daylight appa¬ 
ratus for making lantern slides by reduction. But it 
will be much more convenient in this case to turn the 
camera around so that the lantern plate can be con¬ 
tained in the plate holder instead of the negative to 
be copied, for that can easily be held in a frame at¬ 
tached to the shutter in which the hole is cut. 

The negative to be reduced, then, is supported in 
front of a hole cut in the shutter of a dark-room, and 
outside of that shutter there is a mirror or other re¬ 
flector, by which diffused daylight shines through all 
parts of the negative equally. Opposite is a photo¬ 
graphic camera containing a sensitive plate, and a 
positive picture of lantern slide size to be made from 
that negative. Thus it is simply an ordinary photo¬ 
graphic operation. The camera must be capable of 
racking out to twice its normal length and it would 
be as well to draw upon the ground glass a circle or 
a square to indicate the position which the lantern 
plate wall occupy when the plate holder is inserted. 
Focus the image as carefully as possible with the full 
aperture of the lens, and use a small stop for the ex- 




8S 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


posure. It will be onlj^ misleading to attempt to give 
an idea of the length of time required, there are too 
many factors to be taken into consideration that can¬ 
not be reckoned with beforehand. A few trials will 
soon show the exposure required, and then Captain 
Cuttle’s advice should be followed to the letter, as in 
all other cases where the length of exposure has to 
be found by experiment, “When found, make a note 
of.’’ 

The making of lantern slides by reduction has many 
distinct advantages over the contact method, which 
has not yet been touched upon. In the first place it 
yields far more perfect results as far as good defini¬ 
tion is concerned, and that it must be remembered, 
is a very important matter in connection with lantern 
slides. Then it admits of conveniently printing in 
clouds as in the manner described for bromide en¬ 
largements, but that is not of so much importance 
because there is another and even more convenient 
way of adding suitable skies to photographic trans¬ 
parencies. It is this. The amateur has been advised 
to make for himself a stock of useful cloud negatives 
for wedding to his various landscape photographs as 
occasion may arise. Let him make from these, by 
contact or reduction, as he likes, for if they are 4x5 
negatives it does not much matter, a series of sky 
pictures, upon lantern plates just as if those plates 
already contained landscape views to which it was 
desired to add clouds. Every lantern slide, and, in¬ 
deed, all other transparencies, is finished by being 
mounted with a plain glass in front of it, to protect 
its film from injury. Therefore the easiest way to 
add clouds to one of these is to print the sky upon 
that cover glass by a separate photographic operation, 
and this method has this advantage, that you can 
“try on’’ a number of different cloud-scapes upon the 
landscape picture—just as you would, personally, a 
number of hats, until you find one that fits. Another 
advantage of the reduction method of making slides 
is that it permits the more readily of that judicious 
“faking” that may often be the means of so greatly 
improving the artistic value of a lantern picture, but 
whether the exposure be made in a camera or by the 
more simple contact method, the next operation to 
be considered is development. 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


89 


LANTERN SLIDES BY REDUCTION—ARTIFICIAL 

LIGHT. 

First, however, a word or two as regards the reduc¬ 
tion mechod of making lantern slides by artificial 
light. If reference will be once more made back to 
that portion which is devoted to enlarging with a lan¬ 
tern, it will be found that the negative to be operated 
upon is placed in the slide stage of that instrument. 
Now, if the front lens of that lantern be removed, 
and the photographic camera, prepared for lantern 
slide making exactly as in the last-considered case, 
put in its place, a reduced image of that negative will 
be thrown upon the ground glass, and that image, 
falling upon a lantern plate, gives you the means of 
producing a slide by reduction wfith artificial light. 

But it has been pointed out that in an optical sys¬ 
tem of this nature it is not possible to insert a small 
stop in the lens in order to improve the definition, for 
such a course would inevitably result in an uneven 
clouding over of the greater portion of the disc, and, 
indeed, the aperture of your photographic lens will 
probably be too small to give a clear image with any 
form of artificial light at your disposal, and the lan¬ 
tern lens would not be of good enough quality to yield 
the perfect definition required in a lantern slide. 

So recourse must be had to the remedy suggested 
for this state of things in connection with the mak¬ 
ing of enlargements, namely, the placing of a sheet of 
ground glass between the condenser and the source of 
light. This will have the effect of greatly diminish¬ 
ing the illumination and consequently, of lengthening 
out the exposure to a very considerable extent, but 
that will not matter in the least where lantern slide 
plates are in use, for the necessary exposure without 
this obstruction would probably be so very short that 
it could not be made at all without an instantaneous 
shutter. As regards all the other proceedings, they 
are similar to those which pertain to reducing by 
daylight. 

DEVELOPING LANTERN SLIDES. 

In developing a lantern slide, the greatest object to 
be always borne in mind is that the utmost transpar- 



90 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


ency which it is possible to get, at the same time that 
the other essentials are not neglected, is the chief 
thing to be aimed at. All portions of the picture 
which represent white, that is, all the high lights, 
must consist of absolutely clear glass. They must 
not merely appear white by comparison with other 
portions of the slide, but there must be actually no 
deposit upon the film, and the test is to lay the slide 
down upon a sheet of white paper, and if the high 
lights do not then appear to be at all veiled, it may 
be pronounced a good one as far as this most import¬ 
ant particular is concerned. But that alone is not 
sufficient to insure a technically perfect lantern slide. 
It will not do at all if the shadows be all represented 
by dense, impenetrable black, for then the clearnes.s 
of the high lights w'ould be only an aggravation of the 
terrible sootiness of everything else. No portion of a 
lantern slide should be so dense that the print of a 
newspaper could not be read through It if both were 
held up to the light. Remember that the density of 
a lantern slide appears upon the screen to be exagge¬ 
rated, and exposure and development must be regu¬ 
lated accordingly, but it does not by any means follow 
that the height of the contrasts is increased to any 
extent. A slide must be full of pluck and vigor, but 
those qualities must be attained rather by the extreme 
whiteness of the lights than by the heaviness of the 
darker portions. 

As regards the choice of a developer, that should be 
decided by the recommendations of the makers of the 
particular plates being used, just as in the case of 
negative plates or any other commercially-supplied 
sensitised commodity. As a general rule, hydroqui- 
none, as a developing agent, is one of the best that 
can be employed, but it requires to be used with care 
and discretion, for the very qualities which make it 
valuable to the clever worker—the power which it 
gives him of obtaining sufficient density from even 
the most unpromisingly weak negatives, and so on, 
are of the kind to make it unmanageable in the hands 
of those who have not taken the trouble to master 
its peculiarities. Here is a formula which will be 
found to suit nearly every plate: 


A. 

Hydroquinone .240 grains 

Potassium meta-bisulphite .240 grains 

Potassium bromide . 60 grains 

Distilled water . 15 ozs. 







GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


91 


B. 

Potassium hydrate (sticks) .600 grains 

Distilled water . 15 ozs. 


For use, take of A and B each one part and mix 
with six parts of water. If this developer does not 
appear to quite suit the plates, try using a little more 
water, and that will probably make it right. I have 
found it to work very well with all the lantern plates 
that I have used, and that is why I quote it, but all 
the same, you cannot do better than stick to the one 
recommended by the plate maker, unless upon trial 
you find this to yield better results in your hands. 
For there is no doubt that different workers secure 
’their best results with different developers, even when 
I they are using the same brand of plates, but the de¬ 
veloper, whatever it is, must be one that suits the par¬ 
ticular peculiarities of the plates wuth which it is 
used. 

COVERING, BINDING, AND FINISHING SLIDES. 

I have already hinted that before a lantern slide is 
actually finished, it must be mounted by binding it to 
a protecting cover glass. These cover glasses can be 
bought ready cut to size and carefully selected so as 
to be as free as possible from any bubbles or other 
flaws in the glass. That the glass, both of the slide 
and the cover, should be very thin, will go without 
saying when it is remembered that there are two to 
be mounted together, and it is hardly necessary to 
again point out how terribly exaggerated are all little 
specks and flaws when the slides are subjected to the 
immense magnification of an optical lantern. How¬ 
ever, the beginner need not trouble much about these 
cover glasses at first, for, for every slide that he turns 
out which will be worthy of mounting, he will in all 
probability spoil at least one lantern plate, and so, 
by cleaning off his failures he will be supplied with a 
sufficient number of cover glasses to mount his suc¬ 
cesses. The simplest way to remove the films from 
spoiled plates is to soak them for a while in dilute 
hydrochloric acid, when the gelatine will float away, 
leaving the glass support perfectly clean. It then 
merely requires rinsing in plenty of clean cold water, 
drying on old linen and subsequently polishing. 

Between the photographic slide and its protective 
cover a paper mask is placed to form a kind of frame¬ 
work to the picture, and also, incidentally, to prevent 
the two touching one another so that the film might 





32 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


possibly become chafed after considerable use. It is 
one of the most important things as regards the ulti¬ 
mate effectiveness of the picture in the lantern, that 
this mask should be so chosen that it suits the shape 
and character of the photograph. Color, of course, 
does not enter into the question at all as it does in 
considering the framing and mounting of an ordinary 
-picture, for the mask must, of necessity, appear blaek 
upon the screen, but masks of all manner of shapes 
and sizes can be bought and should be carefully 
chosen for each picture, while for out-of-the-way. 
cases, it is not a very difficult matter to cut a special 
mask out of black, opaque paper. 

Having chosen a suitable mask and placed the cover 
glass in position, or if necessary, a cover glass bear¬ 
ing clouds of description to fit the view, the next thing 
is to bind the whole together. Again, the fore-sighted 
manufacturer comes to your aid with strips of 
gummed paper, called lantern slide binders. It is 
quite possible that you will experience some difficulty 
in making these sticky strips adhere to the glass, in 
which case strong starch paste, in which a little sugar 
has been dissolved, applied to them instead of water, 
will generally be found to overcome the difficulty. 
Lay the strip, gummy side uppermost, upon a sheet of 
newspaper, apply the paste evenly with a stiff brush, 
rubbing it in several times over till the paper is quite 
limp, and then, beginning right up at the left-hand 
side, place the compound slide and cover glass in cen¬ 
ter of the strip and press it down. The next move¬ 
ment I can only describe by asking you to imagine 
that the glasses are circular instead of square, for it 
is analogous to rolling them—together, of course— 
along the length of the strip, so that they pick it up as , 
they go. In reality, this movem.ent is performed one 
side at a time, and when the third side is lowermost 
the paper attached to the first can be folded over and 
pressed down with the hand, so that at that edge the 
two glasses are bound firmly together. Then it is 
moved on to one more place and the second side 
treated in a similar manner, and so on, until all four 
are finished. The operation seems somewhat difficult 
at first, but the knack of it comes with a little prac¬ 
tice. 




GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


93 


HOW TO USE PHOTOGRAPHIC TRANSPAREN¬ 
CIES FOR HOME DECORATION. 

If you hold up a technically-perfect lantern slide 
and look at it by transmitted light you will see that 
it is not by any means to be regarded as a perfect 
transparency for viewing in that manner. It will 
appear thin and weak in contrast, and of a decidedly 
wishy-washy character generally. But by this time, 
it is to be hoped you will be a sufficiently good pho¬ 
tographer to overcome that defect when you want 
to make transparencies for direct visual purposes, 



Pig. 32. Lamp-shade for showing off transparencies. 
Fits the rim of any ordinary duplex lamp, and has 
grooves to carry the transparencies intended for 
display. A light touch is sufficient to cause the 
holder to rotate, so that in turn all the pictures 
are brought in view. 









94 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


such as for the decoration of windows and the like. 
It is really only a matter of judicious development. 
A transparency that is required for other purposes 
than lantern work should be carried farther in the 
developing process; in all other respects, its treatment 
is precisely similar. 

Few people have any idea of the great possibilities 
‘as regards home decoration which are opened up to 
them by photography, especially through the channel 
of good transparencies. Such pictures come in for a 
great variety of decorative uses, the number of which, 
it might also ge said, is only limited to the photo¬ 
grapher’s ingenuity. Lamp shades, fire screens, win¬ 
dow blinds and many other things which are often 
so exceedingly ugly in themselves, can be turned into 
things of beauty by the tasteful use of photographic 
pictures in this form. Transparencies destined for 
this sort of uses should, as I have already said, be 
specially made upon transparency plates, and back 
with a sheet of ground glass in order to heighten the 
effect, and lantern slides which are often too dense 
to be really serviceable in their original capacity, can 
be turned to account, in this manner. They may be 
hung around opal glass lamp globes, for instance, 
when, besides serving the useful purposes of shielding 
the eyes from the undue glare, they form a very 
pretty ornamentation. But numbers of such uses will 
at once suggest .themselves to the fertile imagination 
of the photographic amateur. It will be quite unne¬ 
cessary to do more than throw out this suggestion. 



CHAPTER VII. 


MISCELLANEOUS BRANCHES OP PHOTO¬ 
GRAPHY. 

USE OF ORTHOCHROMATIC PLATES FOR 
FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY—COPYING 
PAINTINGS, ETC. 

When the budding photographic genius sees for the 
first time a certain make of plates advertised under 
the name of “Orthochromatic,” he is generally quite 
at a loss to discover what particular peculiarities are 
implied by this curious title. Nor will he be much 
enlightened if he be told that the alternative name 
for precisely the same thing is “Isochromatic.” The 
former word signifies “correct color,” while the mean¬ 
ing of the latter is “equal color,” and as photography 
up to the present is quite independent of color of 
any description, for it is unable to reproduce any of 
the various tints and shades of nature by a direct 
photographic process, it is difficult to see just where 
the application of these, words comes in. 

The idea that these unhappily-chosen adjectives are 
intended to convey when applied to a photographic 
plate, is that it is capable of reproducing colored ob¬ 
jects in their correct tone-relation to one another. As 
everybody knows who has had his or her—especially 
her—photograph taken, the ordinary photography is 
not able to do this. Not only does it translate all 
color into sober monochrome, but the tints which it 
chooses to represent any given hue are generally of a 
very different shade to that which we would select 
as being of equivalent light-value. A lady who goes 
to the photographer’s to have her portrait taken, in a 
bright red dress, finds, to her dismay, when the proof 
comes home, that, as far as that garment is con¬ 
cerned, she appears to be in deepest mourning, while 
her peacock-blue bonnet is represented as being nearly 
white. If the above combination of color is not one 
that you would wear, please forgive me, gentle reader, 


96 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


for I am of male extraction, and do not understand 
tli0S0 things. 

But if the photographer who has to depict this 
somewhat trying subject were to use isochromatic 
plates, the red dress would appear of an equivalent 
shade of grey instead of black, while the blue, instead 
of coming out white or nearly so, would be repre¬ 
sented by a somewhat lighter shade of grey—in fact, 
the colors would be reproduced just as a painter 
w'ould show them if told to translate the subject into 
black and white. 

This result is brought about by treating the plates 
in the course of their manufacture to a staining pro¬ 
cess with one of the yellow aniline dyes which gives 
to the bromide of silver emulsion a much lighter de¬ 
gree of sensitiveness to yellow and red light. Still, 
however, the most highly color-sensitized plates are 
far more susceptible to the action of what are gener¬ 
ally called the actinic rays—those which form the 
blue and violet portions of the spectrum—and before 
such plates can be made to yiela really correctly- 
toned photographs, this super-activity or the blue antv 
violet rays must be reduced to a proportionate poten¬ 
tial by filtering out a great number of them and 
allowing only a suitable quantity to pass. This sounds 
like a large order, but when it is remembered that a 
piece of what we call yellow glass, say, only appears 
to us to be yellow because it has the power of stop¬ 
ping all the rays of which light is made up, except 
those which are yellow in color, and from these, being 
the only ones to reach our eyes, we get the impression 
that the piece of glass is of yellow hue. 

Now, if a piece of pale yellow glass, or stained 
gelatine, which is rather more convenient to use, be 
placed in the lens of the cameia in such a way that 
all the light which passes through has to filter 
through it, a large proportion of the blue and violet 
light coming from the objects being photographed will 
be soaked up and absorbed, and a very much smaller 
quantity will reach the photographic plate than if 
the precaution were omitted, while the red and yellow 
rays are allowed to pass unobstructed. Then, if a 
plate be used w’hich has been rendered sensitive to the 
yellow rays in the manner I have suggested, a pho¬ 
tograph will be produced in which the various colors 
of nature will be represented by different shades of 
grey of a tone-value which will appear to us ?c- be 
equivalent to the tone-values of the original colors. ' 





GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


97 


This process places in the hands of the photographer 
a means of dispelling the great reproach which his 
art has had to bear ever since its conception, that it 
did not reproduce colors in their equivalent shade of 
monochrome. By its aid nearly all branches of pho¬ 
tography are improved. Landscapes are rendered in 
a far more life-like and natural manner, for the 
bright green trees of early summer do not appear in 
that funereal aspect which was characteristic of the 
older photography; but it is more in photographing 
flowers or copying paintings that the orthochromatic 
process shows up to the best advantage, for in these 
the colors are of a more lively nature and of a kind 
to aggravate the faults of the ordinary photography. 

The introduction of a yellow screen into the lens 
prolongs the necessary exposure to light to about 
twice to four times the time it would otherwdse re¬ 
quire, because it filters out many of the more active 
rays. This is one thing which is to be borne in 
mind when using the process, and the other is that 
the plates being far more sensitive to red light than 
those of the ordinary kind, very much greater care 
is required in handling them in the dark-room. Only 
a very small amount of light of the deepest ruby 
color obtainable must be allowed to reach the sensi¬ 
tive surface at any time until after development is 
completed, and this necessity for working in such 
deep gloom is certainly a great drawback to the pro¬ 
cess. But where paintings and flowers have to be 
photographed or it is desired to reproduce special 
effects in nature where the colors are of a kind to 
be spoiled if ordinary plates are used, the disadvan¬ 
tages of the process are well worth braving. 

STEREOSCOPIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Were I to tell you that it was habitual for you to 
“see double,’’ I fear you might think I was casting 
aspersions upon your character, or hinting at moral 
obliquity. Yet it is true. The images which you see 
with your right and left eyes respectively are not 
precisely similar to one another. If you hold a book 
up edgeways, against your nose, you will be able 
to see one side of it with one eye and the other side 
with the other. The same thing occurs to a smaller 
extent with every subject you look at. One eye sees 
a little more of one side and a little less of the other 
of every solid object that the eye can embrace. There 
is not much difference, I admit, but there is a little. 



98 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


and it is that difference which enables you to tell 
that an object is solid, without walking around it to 
make sure. If you stand perfectly still and look at 
an ordinary landscape, you can be quite certain that 
some portions of it are nearer to you than others, 
and you can even make a pretty accurate guess as to 
the relative distances of different objects. But if 
you look at a photograph or painting of that land¬ 
scape you will soOn be able to find some details in it 
which you cannot for the life of you tell which are 
nearer and which farther away from the observer, 
while only those things which you know from pre¬ 
vious experience must be solid, can you with cer¬ 
tainty invest with that quality. 

But if you take two photographs of that landscape 
from standpoints separated from one another by 
about the distance there is between your two eyes, 
and place them side by side and look at the right 
hand one with the right eye and left hand one with 
the other, these tw'o pictures will be blended together 
when the im.pression reaches your brain, and you 
will get an idea of solidity and differential distance 
just as if you were looking at the original natural 
landscape. But there are very few persons who have 
acquired the art of looking at two different pictures 
with their two eyes separately, and the majority are 
obliged to have recourse to a specially-constructed 
instrument known as a “stereoscope,” so called be¬ 
cause it enables you to “see solid.” 

It is not such a very long time since no fashionable 
drawing-room was deemed complete without its stereo¬ 
scope and set of photographs for the same, and even 
now, in many homes, the instrument is to be found 
enthroned—for at one time this most beautiful branch 
of photography enjoyed immense popularity. How¬ 
ever, its sfar waned, unfortunately, though the signs 
of the times are that it is once more in the ascendant. 
Meanwhile there are many devotees who recognize 
the marvelously beautiful results which are possible 
with the stereoscope, and who, by their patient work 
and excellent photography, will be the means of plac¬ 
ing the neglected art once more on its former pedes¬ 
tal. 

Stereoscopic photographs are not very difficult to 
make. A special camera is required, having two 
lenses exactly alike, separated from one another by 
about three inches, and ^ach casting an image upon 
one photographic plate of a suitable shape to receive 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


99 


them side by side. The interior of the camera is 
divided into two compartments, so that one pic¬ 
ture shall not encroach upon the space reserved 
for the other. Stereoscopic lenses have to be accu¬ 
rately paired in order to produce pictures of ex¬ 
actly similar character as regards the size of the 
objects dejiicted, for lenses of the same make are 
rarely identical as regards focal length unless speci¬ 
ally selected. The two lens caps are attached to¬ 
gether by a connecting link in order that exposures of 
exactly similar length may be given to two constitu¬ 
ent halves of the compound photograph, ana if in¬ 
stantaneous pictures have to be taken, a specially- 
designed duplex shutter must be used. All these 
things can be obtained from the photographic dealers, 
so that the amateur who aspires to stereoscopic w’ork 
—and he can hardly have a nobler ambition—will not 
find any difficulties in procuring the materials he v/ill 
require. 

It is easy to sec that some subjects are far m.ore 
suitable to stereoscopic treatment than others, and 
success in this branch of photography is largely a 
matter of the judicious choice of subjects. For in¬ 
stance, an open landscape view, in which all portions 
are of considerable distance from the camera, will 
not have its effect at all heightened by stereoscopic 
treatment, for there are no objects in the foreground 
round which the camera can look, as it were, and all 
the constituent jiaits are so distant and so much of 
one plane that there is nothing to which solidity can 
be given. In stereoscopic photography, distance does 
not lend enchantment to the view, unless there is 
something in the foreground to accentuate that dis¬ 
tance and to give it effect. Choose a subject in which 
there are several planes, one behind another, clearly 
defined by some conspicuous object in each, and then 
the full and marvelous effect of this “solid-seeing” 
photography will be brought out. 

But there is one thing in connection with it which 
must have particular attention, and that Is the great 
importance of ensuring that that picture which in 
nature w'ould be seen with the right eye, is placed in 
the right-hand half of the stereoscope, or else the 
whole land.scape will appear to be turned inside out. 
It is easy to understand that if one ej'e receives the 
impression that ought to go to the other, the brain, 
whose duty it is to combine the two, gets consider¬ 
ably muddled up between them, and the result is a 


L.«rc. 



100 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


most peculiar mixture. 

The two pictures fall side by side upon the photo¬ 
graphic plate, the left-hand one on the left side, and 
the right on the other, but each picture is, or course, 
separately inverted as regards left and right as well 
as top and bottom. Then, w'hen a print is made from 
the compound negative, the lateral inversion is cor¬ 
rected, that is to say, the right-hand side of each 
picture appears upon the right, but both are still 
upside down. That is easily corrected, you will say, 
by turning the whole thing the other way up. Yes, 
that is so. But in so doing you will reverse the rela¬ 
tive positions of the pictures, and put that one wnich 
has been taken with the left-hand lens upon the right- 
hand side, which is just what I warned you against. 
The photographs will require transposing; the print 
must be cut in half along the central line, and the 
positions of the halves reversed. The operation, of 
course, is simply equivalent to taking the two pic¬ 
tures—which were produced upside down in the camera 
—and separately turning them right way up. If it 
be particularly required to print upon one piece of 
paper, the negative itself may be cut in two and its 
tw'O halves transposed. 

FLASH-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPH. 

When a thin ribbon made of the metal magnesium 
is ignited it burns steadily and quietly wdth a very 
brilliant, white light, and this light is even more 
brilliant, photographically speaking, than it is visu¬ 
ally, for it is exceedingly rich in those actinic rays 
which have such very powerful effect upon the sensi¬ 
tive plate. With several of these ribbons plaited 
together—an arrangement which is called a “Magne¬ 
sium Torch”—photographs of the interiors of the 
darkest subterranean caves, where daylight has never 
penetrated, may be successfully made, and the in¬ 
teriors of buildings, and even portraits, can be taken 
at night time by this means. 

But there is a more convenient method of using the 
metallic magnesium as a light-giver for portrait work, 
and that is by using the metal in the form of fine 
dust, which can be thrown into a very hot flame, 
with the result of producing a sudden flash of in¬ 
tensely brilliant light. This method has been used 
with considerable success for photographing dramatic 
representations, large crowds of persons assembled 
at political meetings or functions of a similar char- 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


101 


acter, and when there is no other means of taking 
such photographs—which constantly happens, for 
these gatherings usually take place at night—the end 
is generally sufficiently good to justify the means. 
But for ordinary portraiture it is rather less success¬ 
ful, for the sudden glare is enough to perturb the 
most phlegmatic sitter, and cause him to indulge in 
even more grotesque grimaces than is the wont of 
sitters for portraiture. For photographing interiors 
the “flash-light,” as it is called, may be used with 
better effect, but in either case, several small sources 
of light should be employed in preference to one big 
one, so that the illumination may be more evenly 
diffused, and hard shadows avoided as much as pos¬ 
sible. 

There are three chief ways of producing the mag¬ 
nesium flash. One is by blowing the powdered metal, 
by the aid of a puff of w'ind, into the flame of a 
spirit lamp; another consists in placing the powder 
upon a tuft of gun-cotton, which, when ignited, burns 
very quickly and sets fire to the powder as it blows 
it into the air, and the third is by means of a pyro¬ 
technic mixture, manufactured and sold under various 
names as flash-light powders and flash-light cart¬ 
ridges. These mixtures are more or less explosive, and 
extreme caution must be exercised when using them. 
The gun-cotton method—though comparatively safe, 
and quite silent and harmless in action—is inconveni¬ 
ent because of the difficulty in firing a number of 
charges at the same moment, and stored gun-cotton 
is, to a small extent, liable to spontaneous ignition, 
which is not a pleasant habit in substances of this 
nature. 

The remaining method, in which a puff of air carries 
the powder into a flame, though also open to 
objection, may be considered the most practical, or 
perhaps, it would be rather more correct to call it 
the least impracticable. Magnesium flash lamps are 
now articles of commerce—like everything else that 
the photographer can possibly wish for—and they 
have been brought to as high a pitch of perfection as 
can reasonably be expected. They consist or a spine 
-lamp, generally with an annular wick, in the center 
of which is a tiny reservoir, which has to be charged 
beforehand with magnesium dust. A pneumatic bulb, 
very like that used to actuate the release of an in¬ 
stantaneous shutter, only somewhat larger, serves to 
force the dust into the hottest part of the flame when 



102 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


the time comes to make the exposure. Several such 
lamps can be worked at the same moment from one 
large bulb, by means of a system of branches for the 
tubes, or, in extreme cases, a specially-made pair of 
bellows can be substituted for the bulb to send the 
puff of wind along the several tubes. 

The method of taking a flash-light photograph 
hardly needs description. The camera is focussed, 
generally with the aid of a lighted candle held near 
the object, for there is seldom anything in the pic¬ 
ture which is sufficiently brightly illuminated to be 
visible on the ground glass, and then the cap being 
placed upon the lens, the plate holder is inserted and 
the slide drawn in the usual way. Just before the 
exposure is to be made, the cap is removed, and, 
after the flash is over, it is replaced while the shutter 
is closed again. 

A more satisfactory use for the flash-light is to 
employ it as a means of auxiliary illumination in 
photographing insufficiently or unequally lighted sub¬ 
jects, such as interiors where one corner may often 
be the better for a little extra light. And during the 
exposure of a portrait, too, it may be useful to cast 
some further illumination upon that side of the figure 
which is farthest away from the regular source of 
light—always provided the sitter has sufficiently 
strong nerves not to be startled by the sudden flash. 

In addition to its more serious picture-making uses, 
the camera is capable of affording the amateur pho¬ 
tographer many opportunities of amusing and mysti¬ 
fying his friends. For instance, so-called “spirit” 
photographs are by no means difficult to produce, and 
should the reader desire to try his hand at this vari¬ 
ation in the usual photographic routine he should pro¬ 
ceed as follows: The sitter should be posed and the 
camera arranged all ready for the exposure in the 
usual way. The spirit or ghost must then take up 
his or her position in some expressive attitude behind 
the sitter, and, using a small stop, a very short ex¬ 
posure should be given. The spirit then rnoves aw'ay 
from the scene of action, and without any movement 
of either camera or sitter, a second exposure of lon¬ 
ger duration should be made. On development of the 
negative, it will be found that the spirit comes out 
as a shadowy, transparent form, while the remainder 
of the picture is precisely the same as an ordinary 
photograph. A more h'^zy appearance may be im¬ 
parted to the spirit by placing a piece of fine muslin 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


1C3 


gauze in front of the lens during the first exposure. 
A photograph by this plan can only be achieved, of 
course, with the connivance of a sitter. If, however, 
the photographer wishes to obtain a similar result, 
without the sitter knowing what is being done, the 
first exposure on the “spirit” may be made some hours 
or even days before the actual portrait of the sitter 
is taken, though, of course, the same plate should 
be used for both exposures. 

Some interesting photographic pictures may be ob¬ 
tained by the use of one or more mirrors, and, indeed, 
by standing opposite a mirror, the budding amateur 
may perpetuate his own portrait. By placing a sitter 
between a pair of parallel mirrors, arranged at a cer¬ 
tain angle, so as not to reflect either the camera or 
operator, an interesting multiple portrait may be ob¬ 
tained, the one individual blossoming out into a whole 
row of exactly similar people. Also by arranging 
mirrors at proper angles, the full-face and right and 
left profile views of a person can be obtained on the 
same plate at one exposure. The distorted images 
presented by concave and convex mirrors may also 
be humorously turned to photographic account. 

Probably some of my readers have seen photo¬ 
graphs of a man playing cards with himself, or of 
a man about to cut his own head off. These pictures 
are termed “doubles,” and are produced by the aid 
of an arrangement with two shutters which fits on 
to the front of the camera and which allows only 
half the plate to be exposed at once. The card-player 
seats himself at one side of the card-table and poses 
ready for the exposure. The right-hand shutter on 
the exposing apparatus is then opened and one-half 
of the plate exposed. The man then moves to the 
other side of the table, and when he has placed him¬ 
self in proper position, the left-hand shutter is opened 
and the other half of the plate exposed. A simpler 
way of achieving the same result is to cut a small 
disc of black cardboard just to fit inside the front end 
of the brass lens mount. A segment of this disc of 
sufficient size to expose rather more than half the 
plate is then cut off this disc. The lens mount is not 
screwed tight home in its flange on the camera front, 
but is left just loose so that it can easily be revolved 
half a turn without disturbing the camera. The sub¬ 
ject should first be focussed, and then the cue disc 
placed in position with the straight edge vertical. The 
cap is just on the lens, and when the sitter is posed, 
the cap taken off and replaced so as to make the 



104 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


exposure. The lens mount is then turned round 
through half a revolution, the sitter changes his place 
to the required position, and the second exposure Is 
made. In each case, of course, the sitter should be 
directly in front of the uncovered portion of the lens. 

Caricature portraits may be made in several differ¬ 
ent ways. For instance, take two photographs of a 
friend, one of the head alone and the other of the 
whole figure; but the latter should be on a much 
smaller scale than the former. Take a print from 
each negative, and then neatly cut out the large head 
from the first print and paste it on to the shoulders 
of the small figure in the second print. From the 
composite picture thus obtained, make another nega¬ 
tive, and then any number of prints can be obtained 
from this, showing your friend with a very big head 
on a very small body. Another plan is to make a 
comical drawing on a sheet of cardboard of a body 
and a pair of legs. Then the sitter who is (to be cari¬ 
catured should hold this drawing in front of him, 
and, placing his head just over the shoulders in the 
drawing, should be photographed in this position. 

An amusing departure from the orthodox style of 
portraiture may be made by presenting a friend with 
a picture of himself inside a bottle. This should be 
prepared as follows. First photograph the individual 
on a sufficiently small scale to fit in with the size of 
the bottle. In this picture surrounding objects should 
not be allowed to appear. Then the bottle is photo¬ 
graphed large enough to contain the man, and then 
by the combined use of the two negatives the finished 
print is made. 

X-RAYS AND THEIR USES. 

Quite at the beginning of the year eighteen hundred 
and ninety-six, the whole scientific world and all the 
ordinary people thereof were startled by the an¬ 
nouncement that a means had been found of photo¬ 
graphing the living human skeleton. And when a few 
days later the statement was substantiated by the 
actual photographs of the bones of the living hand, 
popular excitement rose to a height which has rarely 
been reached on account of a scientific discovery, and 
which was probably due more to the uncanny nature 
of the pictures than their importance from a scien¬ 
tific point of view. 

Professor Roentgen, of Wurtzburg, was experiment¬ 
ing with some high vacuum electrical apparatus called 




GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


105 


after the inventor, “Crookes’ Tubes,’’ and he hap¬ 
pened to have some sensitive photographic plates 
lying upon the table, and he found that, by some 
means he did not understand, these plates, though 
securely guarded against the acti/on of light in the 
usual manner by black paper wrappings, became 
fogged, just as if light had access to them. He, 
therefore, tried a few experiments with them, and 
these led to those curious and valuable results which 
have now made his name famous all the world over. 
He soon found that there was a kind of invisible 
radiation from these Crookes’s tubes, which is not 
light, or at any rate is not light of the kind with 
which we are familiar, for it obeys none of the natu¬ 
ral laws which govern ail kinds of light, visible and 
invisible, with which we have ever had to do. The 
fact that this “New Photography,” as it has been 
popularly christened, has “caught on” to such a won¬ 
derful extent, is largely due to the happy thought 
which suggested that the effect of the new rays 
should be tried upon the human hand, when it was 
found that they would penetrate the flesh, but they 
could not pass the bones. Consequently, upon a pho¬ 
tographic plate placed behind, the curious result was 
obtained of a shadow photograph of part of the liv¬ 
ing skeleton. 

But there are many other substances besides flesh 
and blood towards which these unknown rays—they 
are called “X-Rays,” because their nature is not 
known—behave in a peculiar manner, in fact, their 
effect upon the majority of things is quite different 
to what might have been expected from our previous 
experience in relation to ordinary light. For instance, 
glass is very nearly opaque to this mysterious radi¬ 
ation, while wood and cardboard are almost perfectly 
transparent. An ordinary photographic lens with 
W'hich to bring these rays to a focus is, of course, out 
of the question, but that does not much matter, for, if 
glass were ever so transparent to them it would not 
have the desired effect, for the rays cannot be re¬ 
fracted. So it will be seen these “New Photographs” 
are not taken by means of light, as far as we can 
make out. and they are certainly not taken with a 
camera. They are “shadow’graphs,” pure and simple, 
and the agency by which they are made is probably 
some form of radiant electricity. 

In making these “elec'rographs,” as we might call 
them, a large Rhurnkorff induction coil is employed 



106 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


in connection with an electric battery or other source 
of low tension electricity to furnish the high potential 
current required to actuate the Crookes’s tube. The 
active rays spring from the negative electrode of the 
tube when excited by the electricity, and in the best 
forms of tube for this special purpose, they are re¬ 
ceived upon a little mirror of platinum, placed just 
opposite the cathode—as the negative plate is termed 
—and so inclined that they are reflected downwards 
towards the sensitive plate placed beneath. 

Let us suppose that what up to the present has been 
the most popular of all subjects has been chosen to be 
electrographed—the living hand. A large sensitive 
plate of the ordinary kind is wrapped up in a blaea 
paper envelope, which will protect it from the access 
of light, so that the operation may be conducted in 
a well-lighted room with impunity. The hand who«e 
bones it is desired to shadowgraph is then laid on the 
plate, and the vacuum tube arranged at a height of 
about six inches over it. Then, the owner of the 
hand, having been cautioned to keep it as still as 
possible, the electric current is turned on and the 
invisible radiations from the tube allowed to act upon 
the plate for a period of five minutes down to half a 
minute, or even less, according to the size and pov/er 
of the'coil. Then the plats is taken to a dark-room 
and developed in the ordinary manner, and, all being 
well, it will show the flesh of the hand of a dark grey 
on a black background, upon which the bones stand 
out plainly revealed and almost white, while anv \ 
metallic objects,, such as rings, being absolutely 
opaque to the rays, will show up with brilliant white¬ 
ness. 

It is the prints from such negatives as this that 
are now such familiar objects in the shop windows, 
where they never fail to attract attention. Though 
the interest in “The New Photography” cannot last 
at its present high pitch, after the novelty has worn 
off, the very great use which the “X-Rays” promise 
to be in the future, and are even now commencing to 
be to that noblest of all professions—the alleviation 
of pain and suffering—will ensure their memory being 
kept forever fresh. 



CHAPTER VIII. 


USEFUL FORMULAE AND RECIPES. 

AMIDOL DEVELOPER. 

Amidol . from 30 to 50 grains 

Sulphite of soda. 1 oz. 

Water .10 ozs. 

BELITZKI’S REDUCING FORMULA. 

First dissolve 22 grains of potassium ferric oxalate 
in 1 oz. of water and then add to the solution thus 
formed 18 grains of sodium sulphite. When this has 
dissolved, add 3 grains of oxalic acid (crystals), and 
shake till the color of the solution turns from blood- 
red to green. Then remove any undissolved acid and 
add sodium hyposulphite 120 grains, dissolved in % oz. 
of water. The reducer is now complete, and may be 
applied to freshly-fixed negatives directly after they 
have had a slight rinsing under the tap. The solution 
keeps almost inslefinitely in the dark, and may be used 
over and over again until exhausted. If a negative 
has been previously dried, it should first be well 
soaked in water before reducing. 

BLACK FOR COATING INSIDE OF CAMERAS, 
DARK-SLIDES, ETC. 

The following is a useful black mixture for coating 
the inside of cameras, or dark-slides, lens mounts, 
parts of shutters, etc., or any portion of photographic 
apparatus which requires a dead-black surface: Take 
1 oz. of gold size and 1 oz. of lamp black, and grind 
or rub these together thoroughly. Then add oz. 
of methylated spirit and 8 ozs. of turpentine. It 
may be applied with a fine piece of sponge or a soft 
brush. 

BLUE PRINT PAPER-TO USE. 

Ferro-prussiate, or blue print paper, may be bought 
in rolls or in packets cut to size. It is printed under 
the negative in the printing frame, as in the case of 
printing out paper, but should be printed in as 





108 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


Strong a light as possible. It should be printed until 
the shadows are obscured and the picture appears 
considerably over-printed. The paper should then 
be removed from the frame and washed in several 
changes of water, until the last change shows no 
trace of discoloration. This paper is very useful for 
quickly taking a number of rough prints from a nega¬ 
tive, and with some subjects, such as sea-pictures, 
very charming results can be obtained. Ferro-prussi- 
ate paper may be toned brown by first immersing in 
a 10 per cent solution of washing soda till the image 
is bleached, and then removing it to a second solu¬ 
tion, composed of tannin, dissolved in water to the 
proportion of 10 grains of the former to 1 oz. of the 
l3.tt0r* 

BRASS—TO BLACKEN. 

The amateur often requires to re-blacken stops or 
other portions of the brass work of his apparatus, 
which have seen considerable use. The old black 
should first be cleaned off with a piece of fine emery 
cloth, and the metal should then be dipped in a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts of the following solutions: 

NO, I. SOLUTION. 


Silver nitrate . 40 grains 

Water .100 minims 


NO. II. SOLUTION. 

Copper nitrate .40 grains 

Water .100 minims 

When the stops are removed from the above they 
should be allowed to dry, and then should be uni¬ 
formly and gradually heated until they assume the 
desired black color, 

COMBINED TONING AND FIXING BATH. 

In the chapter on toning the reader was shown how 
to mix up a toning bath, but the formula then given 
necessitated the use of a subsequent separate fixing 
bath. With the following solution, however, the pro¬ 
cesses of toning and fixing are carried on at the same 
• time, and after this is done the prints only require 
washing. To obtain the most satisfactory results, 
however, the reader is strongly advised to use the 
separate baths as previously described: 








GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


109 


NO. I. SOLUTION. 


Chloride of gold .15 grains 

Water .20 ozs. 


NO. II. SOLUTION. 


Sodium hyposulphite . 4 ozs. 

Water .20 ozs. 


Take 4 ounces of No. I. Solution and add gradually 
to No. II. Solution, making sure that a thorough mix¬ 
ture takes place. The bath may then be used. 

CRACKED NEGATIVES—TO PRINT FROM. 

If the reader be unfortunate enough to crack a 
valuable negative, he may still obtain a satisfactory 
print therefrom, provided the film remains unin¬ 
jured. The negative should be carefully placed in the 
printing frame in the usual way and the latter should 
be covered over with tissue paper or ground glass, 
so as to diffuse the light as much as possible. The 
frame should also be continually rotated during print¬ 
ing. If these precautions are taken, the crack in the 
glass will practically have no effect on the resultant 
print. 

DIRTY BOTTLES—TO CLEAN. 

The following is a simple method of effectually 
cleaning out dirty bottles: Procure a quantity of 
small lead shot and place them inside the bottle. 
Then pour in some fairly hot water, care being taken 
not to crack the bottle, and add a few small crystals 
of soda. Then shake the contents of the bottle vigo¬ 
rously for a short time, and unless the bottle has 
been exceptionally dirty, it will be found to be thor¬ 
oughly cleaned. The contents should then be emptied 
out and the bottle finally rinsed out with a fresh 
supply of clean water. 

EIKONOGEN DEVELOPER. 

NO. I. SOLUTION. 


Eikonogen .40 grains 

Sodium sulphite .40 grains 

Water up to .10 ozs. 

NO. II. SOLUTION. 

Sodium carbonate .200 grains 

Potassium hydrate .25 grains 

Water up to .10 ozs. 













110 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


For developing, take equal parts of Nos, I. and II. 

EIKONOGEN AND HPDROQUINONE COMBINED 
DEVELOPER. 


Eikonogen .60 grains 

Hydroquinone .20 grains 

Sodium sulphite . 2 ozs. 

Water up to .10 ozs. 


After the aoove are all dissolved, add y-i oz. of 
potassium hydrate. 

For developing, dilute with equal bulk of water. 

ENLARGING A NEGATIVE. 

The following simple plan for enlarging a negative 


may be found useful; 

Make a solution of: 

Citric acid .2 ozs. 

Hydrofluoric acid .1 oz. 

Acetic acid (glacial) . 1 oz. 

Glycerine . y^ oz. 

W'^ater .20 ozs. 


Wash well the negative, and immerse it in a deep 
dish, containing the above solution. The film will 
float off the glass and will spread out or enlarge 
evenly in all directions till a certain size is reached. 
Then remove the film, wash it well, and float it on 
to a fresh piece of glass of suitable size. It may then 
be allowed to dry. 

FERROUS OXALATE DEVELOPER. 

A two solution of ferrous oxalate developer can be 


made up as follows; 

NO. I. , 

Oxalate of potash . 4 ozs. 

Water up to .16 ozs. 

NO. II. 

Ferrous sulphate .1 oz. 

Boiled water up to.4 ozs. 

Sulphuric acid .3 drops 


For use, add 1 oz. of No. I. Solution to 3 ozs. of 
No. II. 

FOCUSSING SCREEN—SUBSTITUTE FOR. 

If you have the misfortune to break your focussing 
screen, an efficient substitute may be made in the 
following way; Obtain a piece of thin, clear glass. 

















GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


Ill 


of exactly the size of the original screen. Then take 
some negative varnish, dilute considerably with 
methylated spirit, and varnish the glass in a manner 
precisely similar to that of varnishing a negative as 
described in the preceding chapter on development. 
The glass should then be allowed to cool, and when the 
varnish has sufficiently hardened, the latter should 
be rubbed gently with the finger until it loosens in 
the form of a whitish powder. When this treatment 
has been applied all over, the powder should be care¬ 
fully brushed away and the screen is complete. 

GLASS. 

A useful recipe for a glass cleaning mixture is the 


following: 

Pumice stone (powdered) . 2 ozs. 

Whiting (powdered) . 3 ozs. 

Soft water .2 ozs. 

Ammonia .880 . 1 oz. 


This should be applied to the glass with a piece of 
chamois leather, and a final polishing may be given 
with a tuft of tissue paper. 

HYDROQUINONE OR QUINOL DEVELOPER. 

One-Solution Developer. 


Hydroquinone . 4 grains 

Carbonate of soda .40 grains 

Sodium sulphite .36 grains 

Water .2 ozs. 


Two-Solution Developer. 
No. 1 Solution. 


Hydroquinone .120 grains 

Water .20 ozs. 

Sodium sulphite . 2 ozs. 


The hydroquinone should be dissolved in the water 
before the sodium sulphite is added. 


No. 2 Solution. 


Bromide of potassium .30 grains 

Carbonate of potash . 4 ozs. 

Water .20 ozs. 


For use, take equal parts of Nos. 1 and 2. 

















112 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


METOL DEVELOPER. 
No. 1 Solution. 


Metol . 1 part 

Sodium sulphite .10 parts 

Water . 100 parts 

No, 2 Solution. 

Sodium carbonate crystals . 10 parts 

Water .100 parts 

For use, mix equal parts of Nos. 1 and 2. 

METOL AND HYDROQUINONE DEVELOPER. 

Metol .12 grains 

Sodium Sulphite . % oz. 

Hydroquinone .18 grains 

Potassium carbonate .100 grains 


Take 5 ozs. of water and add and dissolve each of 
the above constituents in the order given. For use, 
add 1 oz. of water to each ounce of solution. 

MOUNTANT FOR PRINTS. 

Dissolve 2 ozs. of gelatine in 7 ozs. of water. To 
this add first % oz. of glycerine and then 3 ozs. of 
methylated spirits. The mountant should be ap¬ 
plied to the back of the print with a stiff brush, and 
the print should then be placed in position on the 
mount and rubbed or rolled firmly down. 

PLATES—TO DRY QUICKLY. 

If it is desired to dry a negative with especial quick¬ 
ness after it has been developed and fixed, the fol¬ 
lowing plan may be adopted: First thoroughly wash 
the negative and then drain off as much of the water 
as possible. Next immerse it in a bath of pure methy¬ 
lated spirits or alcohol for about five minutes. Then 
take it out, drain off the alcohol, and stand the nega¬ 
tive up on end to dry. Drying will be completed in 
from five to ten minutes, according to the strength 
of the spirit. 

RUBY GLASS—A SUBSTITUTE FOR. 

If the amateur requires a large piece of ruby glass, 
or has the misfortune to break his ruby lamp, the 
following hint may prove useful: Procure two sheets 
of ruby tissue paper and stick one on top of the other 













GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


113 


by means of a coating of varnish so as to form a 
double thickness. If a very deep ruby is required, 
add an extra sheet in the same way, or, better still, 
a sheet of orange paper. 

RETOUCHING MEDIUM. 

When touching out “pinholes” or other blemishes 
in a negative, the reader will find some little diffi¬ 
culty in making the pencil “bite” the film so as to 
produce the desired effect. To avoid the trouble, a 
retouching medium should first be applied to the 
place where it is desired to work upon. To prepare 
such a medium, take- 


Sandarac . V 2 oz. 

Castor Oil .40 grains 

Methylated spirits . 3 ozs. 


The tip of the finger should be moistened with this 
mixture, and then applied to the negative and rubbed 
lightly thereon until it commences to grip or stick. 
Tne desired retouching may then be readily carried 
out. 

SPOILT NEGATIVES—TO REMOVE FILM PROM. 

The reader may sometimes require a piece of clean 
glass, and such is readily obtainable by stripping 
the film from a spoilt negative. To do this, immerse 
it in a weak solution of hydrofluoric acid, and before 
long the film will leave the glass. If the acid solu¬ 
tion is not available at the moment, put the nega¬ 
tive, film side up, under the hot water tap. In a 
few minutes it will be in suoh a condition as to re¬ 
quire but little trouble to remove it. 

STOPPERS—TO REMOVE WHEN TIGHT. 

In the case of bottles with glass stoppers, trouble 
may sometimes arise through the stopper sticKing 
and refusing to come out when wanted. Preventioa 
is better than cure, and the way to prevent sucn an 
occurrence is to wipe just a suspicion of vaseline 
round the part of the stopper which enters the bot¬ 
tle. When, however, a stopper does stick, the neck 
of the bottle should be heated evenly all round, either 
by the friction of a piece of string drawn rapidly 
backwaro and forward, one turn being made round 
the neck, or by the direct heat of a taper or match. 
This alone will not loosen the stopper, but it causes 
the neck of the bottle to slightly expand and the 






114 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


Stopper can then probably be worked loose with the 
finger and thumb. In obstinate cases, a stick of 
wood with an oblong hole cut in it to fit the stopper 
should be fixed thereon, and a steady twisting strain 
applied. 

TEN PER CENT SOLUTIONS. 

Strictly speakin, a ten per cent solution is a solution 
which consists of a liquid having some substance dis¬ 
solved therein, and of each part, by weight, of the 
liquid, one-tenth is represented by the weight of dis¬ 
solved substance contained in that part. For photo¬ 
graphic purposes, however, a ten per cent solution is 
taken to indicate that in a fluid ounce of 480 minims 
there should be 48 grains of the dissolved substance. 
To make a ten per cent solution of, say, pyro, take 1 
oz. of this substance and add water to make up not 
ten fluid ounces, but nine fiuid ounces, 55 minims. The 
advantage of such a solution is that a required weight 
of pyro can readily be measured out without weigh¬ 
ing, for if 15 grains are required, then 150 minims of 
the solution will contain the desired amount and may 
quickly be poured out exactly, and without trouble. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

Avoirdupois Weight. 

27 and ll-32nds grains equal 1 drachm. 

10 drachms (1 ounce) equal 437% grains, 
lo cunces (1 pound) equal 7,000 grains. 

Note: All chemicals are sold by avoirdupois weight. 

Liquid Measure. 

60 minims equal 1 drachm. 

8 drachms (1 ounce) equal 480 minims. 

20 ounces (1 pint) equal 9,600 minims. 

8 pints (1 gallon) equal 76,800 minims. 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPERATING 
FOLDING HAND CAMERAS. 

The instructions given below wfill have to be modi¬ 
fied somewhat to suit the peculiarities of the camera 
used, but as nearly all folding cameras are of the 
same general construction, the necessary modifica¬ 
tions will not be material. 

Hold camera in left hand. With thumb or finger 
of right hand press concealed button on top, which 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


115 


will release the bed. Lower to a horizontal position 
until the side arms snap into place, take the bulb 
and tube from its position and' place over the front 
of bed. 

With the thumb and forefinger release the small 
hook-shaped lever directly under shutter by a slight 
turn from right to left. Gently pull on same, draw¬ 
ing the bellows and front of camera out upon the bed 
until the index on left side of front indicates the de¬ 
sired distance, as shown on focussing scale from 
your position to the object to be photographed, which 
has previously been measured or estimated. (All 
objects 100 feet or more away are in focus when in¬ 
dex is set on the 100-foot mark on scale. 

Take the loaded plate holder from the carrying 
case, inserting it in back of camera in front of ground 
glass. Gently move until it snaps into position. 
Withdraw the slide nearest the front of the camera. 
Set the shutter as per instructions, composing the 
view by aid of the view-finder, holding the camera 
perfectly level. Press the bulb and the exposure is 
made. Insert the slide in the holder (placing the 
tiack side of .handle nearest the front of camera, 
which is an indication that the plate in that side of 
the holder has been exposed), inserting the slide per¬ 
fectly even—not one corner at a time. Withdraw 
holder by using the right hand, drawing slightly to¬ 
ward the rear, reverse holder and proceed as before. 

Having completed the exposures desired, withdraw 
the plate holder from in front of the ground glass, 
placing it in the space allotted to it in the carrying 
case. Release the hook - shaped lever and gently 
press the front back to position within the camera 
box, tightening the lever by turning from left to 
right. Place tubing around shutter, allowing the 
bulb to rest on the opposite side from the view 
finder. Holding the camera with both hands, gently 
press with both thumbs on the side arms, which wall 
release them, and close the bed to its original posi¬ 
tion. 

In using the camera with a tripod, set up the tri¬ 
pod, place the camera on top, inserting the tripod 
screw in the socket of camera, screwing tight. Open 
camera as per 'instructions when using by hand. 
Manipulate the legs of tripod until the camera is 
level. Turn button in back of camera, which will 
open panel, exposing the ground glass to view. Set 
the shutter and turn dial to letter T and press bulb 



116 


GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


once, thereby opening shutter. Look upon the ground 
glass and the view may be plainly seen. A focussing 
cloth may be used if desired, which will greatly add 
in composing the view. With the right hand manipu¬ 
late the front of camera by drawing the bellows for¬ 
ward and ba'ck until the correct focus is obtained. 
When, instrument is supplied with rack and pinion, 
use same when focussing instead of the lever. (Re¬ 
move focussing cloth if one has been used.) Close 
the pantl in back of camera and press bulb once to 
close shutter. 

Turn the dial of shutter to the required position for 
time, bulb, or instantaneous exposure. Set shutter 
and make the exposure. When all exposures desired 
are made, close the camera as previously instructed, 
unscrew it from tripod and place in the carrying case. 

The rising front is used when as little foreground as 
possible is desired. By turning the miilled head screw 
on the side of front and raising the bellows, together 
with lens and shutter, the result is obtained and can 
be better understood by raising and lowering the 
lens while observing the view on the ground glass. 

ALWAYS readjust the rising front to the original 
position before attempting to close the camera. 

The entire back containing ground glass may be 
removed by pressing down on the small spring at 
top of same and gently drawing the back from the 
camera. This is used only when a roll holder is 
being adjusted. 

THE SWING BACK 

Is used to assist in bringing into focus nearby ob¬ 
jects at the same time as those at a distance, and to 
correct distortions. Should it become necessary to 
tip the camera in a downward position to get the 
views, swing top of back out and bottom in. If 
camera is tipped upward, reverse position of swing, 
the top in and bottom out. The plate in consequence 
is nearly perpendicular and the distortion is obvi¬ 
ated. It w'ould also apply when back is reversed for 
upright pictures, the plate in a vertical position, for 
photographing tall buildings, churches, etc., when 
it becomes necessary to tip camera up, press top of 
back in and bottom out. The side swing is used 
when photographing parallel objects. For illustra¬ 
tion, when by the side of a long bridge, when all 
cannot be brought into focus. By swinging one side 
of the plate nearer the lens, the other farther from 



GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 


117 


the lens, the correct focus is obtained. To operate, 
open the end door and press the two concealed but¬ 
tons at the rear, opening the top of camera. With 
one hand release the swing, and with the other hand 
grasp top of the swing and move to the desired posi¬ 
tion. 

THE HORIZONTAL SWING 

Is manipulated by pressing the lower catch on bot¬ 
tom of camera and with the other hand grasp the 
swing at the bottom and move to desired position. 
Always straighten the back or swings after using, 
and before attempting to close the camera. 

THE PRINCIPAL OBJECT 

Of the Tele-Photo, or long draw camera, is that 
objects at a distance can be made nearly double in 
size in the picture. This is accomplished by unscrew¬ 
ing the front combination of the lens from the shut¬ 
ter, using the back lens only. The use of the rack 
and pinion and focussing on the ground glass will be 
necessary. 

FOR VERTICAL PICTURES. 

Open top of camera and press upward on the two 
brass catches holding back and ground glass in place. 
Detach the back and reverse, placing ground glass 
frame in the brass holder or projection at bottom and 
press back into position until spring catches engage 
the pins at top. In taking vertical pictures the plate 
holder is inserted between ground glass and frame 
from the top of camera instead of from the side. 



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